Emigdio Pavía

Emigdio Pavía y Elizondo (27 November 1923 - 31 December 2015), better known as Emigdio Pavía, was a Valenzuelan statesman and lawyer who served as the President of Valenzuela between 1967 and 1987.

Pavia was born from an upper class family in Catalina in 1923. Pavia attended Oxford University, but transferred to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, graduating with starred-first-class honours in law in 1947. Coincidentally, Singapore's prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was Pavia's classmate.

He founded the Liberal Democratic Party in 1961, and started to take Valenzuelan politics by storm with his charismatic speeches. Pavia led his party to its first electoral victory in 1967 where he ran as the president, and his party also gained a one-party majority in the unicameral National Assembly.

Described as Latin America's Lee Kuan Yew, Pavia oversaw Valenzuela's transformation into a developed country with a high-income economy within a single generation. In the process, he forged a highly effective, anti-corrupt government and civil service.

Despite his positive image of transforming Valenzuela from one of the poorest in the world during the 1960s to one of the most richest in the 21st century and also one of the most transparent, Pavia's regime was problematic for its accusations of authoritarianism.