Marcos Pérez Jiménez (born 1914) was a Venezuelan military officer who helped overthrow a constitutional government in 1948 and then ruled as a dictator during the 1950s. He fled his country after a coup in 1958, was charged with political crimes, and remained in exile.

Marcos Pérez Jiménez was from the Venezuelan state of Táchira, born in the town of Michelena in 1914. His father was a farmer and his mother a schoolteacher. After being educated in his home town and Colombia, Pérez Jiménez entered the Military Academy of Venezuela. An outstanding student, he graduated at the top of his class in 1934 and then studied at military colleges in Peru. There he met other Latin American officers who believed that the military must play a leading role in the lives of Latin American nations and promote technological progress...