CARACAS, Venezuela — Rafael Antonio Caldera, the two-time president who helped establish democracy in Venezuela and issued the pardon that allowed Hugo Chavez to rise to power, died Thursday in Caracas, his son said. He was 93.

Andres Caldera, in comments to Venezuelan television, did not give the cause of his father’s death, but the former president who governed Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999 had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for several years.

Although 20 years divided his terms, Caldera’s manner of ruling was the same: reserved, tough with political adversaries and inclined toward populism. He was also known for living simply and eschewing luxuries, and for integrity in a country where corruption is common.

In 1994, Caldera pardoned Chavez, who was jailed for leading a failed military coup two years earlier. But Caldera was later deeply at odds with Venezuela’s current president.

Chavez called Caldera’s family to express his condolences, the son said. Family members said they do not want the government to play any role in commemorating him.

“The family has already discussed the matter, and we decided we will not accept any homage from the government of Hugo Chavez,” he said.

Born in 1916 in the northwestern state of Yaracuy, Caldera obtained a political science degree at the Central University of Venezuela, entered politics in the 1930s and founded the Social-Christian COPEI party, a movement grounded in the middle class, in 1946.

Fully democratic presidential elections were held the following year, won by the novelist Romulo Gallegos.

But democracy collapsed, and Caldera helped revive it as one of the three signers of the Punto Fijo pact, which organized elections after the fall of dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958.

Under the pact, COPEI and Romulo Betancourt’s Democratic Action party shared power for nearly 40 years.

In his first term as president, Caldera eliminated the remnants of leftist guerrilla movements by granting them a general amnesty. The period was also marked by lavish government spending of oil revenues on public works and a growing bureaucracy.

Two decades later, with Venezuela in turmoil following two failed military coup bids in 1992 and the impeachment of President Carlos Andres Perez on corruption charges, Caldera won a new term without the backing of COPEI, breaking the Punto Fijo power-sharing pact he had helped craft.