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Reports: Ex-Venezuelan president Perez dies at 88

By the CNN Wire Staff
Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez waves to supporters on December 6, 1992, just 10 days after a bloody military coup led by current president Hugo Chavez failed to topple the government.
Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez waves to supporters on December 6, 1992, just 10 days after a bloody military coup led by current president Hugo Chavez failed to topple the government.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez died in Miami, state-run media reports
  • His daughter tells CNN affiliate Globovision that Perez died of a heart attack
  • Perez served as Venezuela's president from 1974-1979 and again from 1989-1993
  • He was impeached months before his last term ended amid corruption charges

(CNN) -- Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez died Saturday in Miami, Florida, state-run media and CNN affiliate Globovision reported.

Perez, 88, served two terms as president of the South American country, the first from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. During his final term, he survived a coup attempt led by Hugo Chavez -- who spent two years in prison, but later amassed support among millions of poor people angry about corruption and became Venezuela's president.

One of his former ministers, Diego Arria, confirmed his death to state-run VTV and the National News Agency AVN. His daughter, Maria Francia Perez, told Globovision that he died of a heart attack at Mercy Hospital in Miami.

Perez first became president a year after oil prices spiked fourfold and led a populist government as a Democratic Action Party candidate that brought stability to the Latin American nation. Still, by the time his term ended in 1979, Venezuela's once strong economy was staggering amid reports of pervasive corruption, according to a U.S. Library of Congress report.

His second stint in power was marred by "El Caracazo," a string of protests and riots against an economic package that the president had introduced that left more than 200 people dead, the Library of Congress report said.

After surviving two coup attempts in 1992 -- including one led by then Lt. Col. Chavez -- Perez was impeached on corruption charges in 1993, several months before his term was to end.

In September 2009, the Venezuelan government requested to Interpol that Perez be arrested for his part in the Caracazo and extradited from the United States, where he'd moved after his presidency ended, according to a report by the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

CNN's Esprit Smith contributed to this report.