José Eleazar López Contreras was the president of Venezuela between 1935 and 1941. He was an army general and one of Juan Vicente Gómez's collaborators, serving as his War Minister from 1931. In 1939, Contreras accepted on behalf of Venezuela the ships Koenigstein and Caribia which had fled with Jews from Germany.

Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón was a Venezuelan military general, politician and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He was president on three occasions during this time, ruling through puppet governments in between.