Isaías Medina Angarita was a Venezuelan military and political leader, the president of Venezuela from 1941 until 1945, during World War II. He followed the path of his predecessor Eleazar López Contreras, and ruled the country's democratic transition process.

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.