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Case file s786 · Latin America · 1935
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1935
Juan Vicente Gómez: Gómez, 1928 restored
Juan Vicente Gómez. Unknown authorUnknown author, Restored version by User:Wilfredor. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
17 December 1935
Place
Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela · Venezuela
Field
dictator (in power 1908 to 1935) · Politics and government on the timeline
Legal tradition
Venezuelan confiscation by act of Congress (1936)
Historical event
End of the Gómez dictatorship
Latin AmericaSeized by the stateWorld warsLatin America

Venezuela confiscated dictator Juan Vicente Gómez's fortune after his death in 1935, after first letting more than 90 relatives leave with money

Juan Vicente Gómez ruled Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. Historian Doug Yarrington writes that he took control of key areas of the economy, drew wealth from Venezuelans and handed resources to favourites. He never married. Spanish Wikipedia lists 15 children with two women, Dionisia Bello and Dolores Amelia Núñez de Cáceres, and between 63 and 73 other children, with some scholars counting 99†. His family announced his death as 17 December 1935 in Maracay, the anniversary of Bolívar's death; Spanish Wikipedia reports he had died two days earlier†. His war minister, Eleazar López Contreras, succeeded him. According to Yarrington's book as cited on Wikipedia, López at first opposed seizing the fortune and allowed more than 90 of Gómez's relatives to leave the country with money, then had the fortune nationalised in July 1936†. Congress approved a confiscation act in August and September 1936†. The relatives who stayed were not harassed†. The estate covered hundreds of haciendas and cattle ranches across the country, which passed to state administration†. The true size of the fortune has never been established.

What the law took from it

A fortune built from state power is the first thing a successor government takes, whatever the will says.

Sources
  1. history.colostate.eduScholarship
  2. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia
  3. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia
  4. Wikipedia (Spanish)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Venezuela confiscated dictator Juan Vicente Gómez's fortune after his death in 1935, after first letting more than 90 relatives leave with money,” story s786, https://www.celebrity.estate/juan-vicente-gomez-1935, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Latin AmericaSeized by the stateWorld warsLatin America