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Paper Tigers and Minotaurs: The Politics of Venezuela's Economic Reforms is a book published in 1993 by Moisés Naím about his experience within the cabinet of president Carlos Andrés Pérez between 1989 and 1990, as well as its explanation of the economic phenomena that occurred during this time and the approach that was made to them as part of a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about the Americas.

According to Naím, who was Minister of Trade and Industry, the book is «almost an autopsy (of the presidency)».

Title and content

Regarding the title, he said in an interview in 2020 that the “paper tigers” were “the union forces, those of the private sector, civil society” who had “all kinds of resistance and rejection” to the "very profound structural reforms that change important beliefs and threads of life in society" that they tried to carry out when they were in government. On the other hand, «the minotaurs hidden were the military", to whom "no one in the government paid attention" nor did the rest of "the politicians, the intellectuals, the journalists, the businessmen", who, according to him, they assumed that they were "no longer political actors because Venezuela had already had an experience with military regimes", stating that there was a "huge oversight" in not noticing that a faction of the army was planning the attempts of coups d'état of 1992.

References

1. "Moisés Naím: "Venezuela es hoy un estado fallido, una economía fracasada y una tragedia humana inenarrable"". Vanity Fair.
2. "Entrevista exclusiva: Moisés Naím, miembro honorario de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias Económicas". Mundo Nuevo Israelita. 25 November 2020.
3. ^ "Moisés Naím: "Argentina es campeón mundial en la necrofilia política"". Perfil. 25 September 2020.

v t e Carlos Andrés Pérez
President of Venezuela (1974–1979) & (1989-1993)
First presidency	Fundación Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho [es] Oil nationalization Petróleos de Venezuela subsidiaries Corpoven [es] Deltaven [es] Lagoven [es] Maraven [es] Netherlands–Venezuela Boundary Treaty United States–Venezuela Maritime Boundary Treaty Kidnapping of William Niehous [es] Killing of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez [es] Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra Sierra Nevada affair 1978 Venezuelan general election
Second presidency	Inauguration El Gran Viraje [es] Caracazo February 1992 coup attempt November 1992 coup attempt Operation Orchid [es] Impeachment [es]
Electoral history	Chamber of Deputies 1947 general election 1958 general election 1963 general election Presidential 1973 general election 1988 general election Senate 1998 parliamentary election
Family	Blanca Rodríguez (wife)
Image	CAP 2 Intentos CAP Inédito La rebelión de los náufragos Paper Tigers and Minotaurs
Related	Los Notables Twelve Apostles
← Rafael Caldera Luis Herrera Campins → ← Jaime Lusinchi Rafael Caldera → Category

• Carlos Andrés Pérez
• Economic history of Venezuela
• 1993 non-fiction books