Over & over, the men & women massed in the Caracas bull ring chanted "Caldera si, Gallegos no!" Venezuela's chief opposition party, the right-wing COPEI (Committee for Independent Electoral Political Organization), had at last found a candidate for the presidential election on Dec. 14. Against famed 63-year-old Novelist Romulo Gallegos, candidate of the ruling Acción Democrática, would be pitched young (31), burly (6 ft., 200 lbs.) Rafael Caldera, one of COPEI's founders.*
Handsome, good-natured Rafael Caldera has been a teacher of sociology at the University of Caracas. When he was only 20, he helped draft Venezuela's labor code, still in...