ABSTRACT
Former President Betancourt, in his speech in the Senate, made few references to the vital part he has played in the long sequence of events which has led up to the nationalization of the oil industry, despite the indisputable fact that he is the Venezuelan who has devoted most time and energy to studying and popularizing everything connected to this subject. In 1941 Betancourt returned from his exile in Chile and in that year the old PDN, after changing its name to Acción Democrática to overcome government resistance, became legal. Between 1941 and 1945 Betancourt travelled all over the country, sometimes accompanied by other Acción Democrática leaders, organizing party cells even in the smallest towns and villages of our wide country. Betancourt also gave a very brief account of the first collective contract between the oil companies and their employees, signed in 1946.
