surrounding population as socioeconomic development initiatives, historical re-enactments and pageants, and oral history documentation efforts. Chávez was also in charge of all patron saints' feasts held in Elorza, Apure between 1987 and 1988. Chávez realized that such projects would be essential in order to effectively allow Latin America to regain an autonomous cultural identity independent of U.S. "cultural imperialism". Yet, in 1988, Chávez was seconded to the Miraflores presidential palace; there, he was appointed assistant head of the National Security and Defense Council by Democratic Action President Jaime Lusinchi. The post would see Chávez sent off briefly to Central America on official business; he would remain at the post until 1989. Reaction to the Caracazo (1989) Throughout Chávez's early life, Venezuela had enjoyed a period of economic and democratic stability that was remarkable in South America at the time. This stability was partly based on Venezuela's massive foreign exchange earnings gained from petroleum exports. Venezuelans referred to their society as Venezuela Saudíta ("Saudi Venezuela"—a reference of Saudi Arabia's heavily modernized and oil-based economy). When Saudi Arabia itself and other United States-aligned oil producers significantly raised their production output—in an attempt to bring about economic implosion in the heavily oil-dependent Soviet Union—a global oil glut ensued. Oil prices collapsed to historic lows, and Venezuelan oil earnings, and economic and social stability in general, were suddenly imperiled: in the 1980s, per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) fell by more than 20%, and by 1989 real wages fell to a third of their previous levels. The nation also faced a dire balance of payments crisis. Responding to this, in 1989 the Carlos Andrés Pérez administration enacted sweeping and ambitious IMF-inspired neoliberal structural adjustment programs. Nevertheless, these reforms were widely unpopular among poor and working class Venezuelans. Such measures involved the removal of state-managed development and industrialization, the implementation of market liberalization measures, enactment of export subsidies and incentives, extensive privatization of state-owned holdings, curtailed social spending, the release of longstanding price controls on many goods, as well as liberalization of capital and liquidity flows into and out of Venezuela. The programs' international backers—including renowned Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs—as well as domestic business groups such as Grupo Roraima thereby sought to restore fiscal stability and responsibility to Venezuela's ailing economy. These policies yielded mixed social and economic results. In 1991 and 1992, Venezuela experienced GDP growth rates of 10.3% and 7%, respectively. Such remarkable results