The Academia de Historia of Venezuela has recently elected three new Corresponding Members: Malcolm Deas, Eduardo Posada-Carbó and Brian McBeth. This is a very pleasing honour for all three, and indirectly a recognition of the consistent involvement of the Latin American Centre with Venezuela since its foundation.
Eduardo’s work on the history of liberalism, democracy and elections since Independence has always embraced Venezuela. Brian’s doctoral thesis, published by Cambridge University Press with the title Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies, is recognised as an indispensable work on that aspect of the country’s history, and he is the author of two more book on dictatorship and resistance in Venezuela in the twentieth century. Malcolm has written a number of essays on Venezuelan history, including its comparison with Colombia, and he was invited by the Academia some few years ago to give the annual Gil Fortoul Memorial Lecture; his theme was “La historia crítica en Venezuela”.
In Colombia, the Academia Colombiana de Historia promoted Malcolm from Corresponding to Honorary Member. At the ceremony in Bogotá he lectured on the life and writings of the nineteenth-century historian, editor, entrepreneur, publicist, traveller, diplomat, poet and occasional soldier Medardo Rivas. The Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla gave him an honorary doctorate. The celebration gave him the chance to see again a number of former students. He will never forget the hospitality of Uninorte and its Rector Adolfo Meisel.
