described as a small-scale precursor to the "social
missions" he launched in hundreds of barrios as president, Chávez contacted
a friend of his who was the head of the National Institutes of
Sports in Barinas and recruited trainers to coach the soldiers for free.
The program was a big success. For two years straight the Cedeno's
soldiers were the interbattalion champions in baseball, soccer, volleyball,
basketball, and track and field. Chávez turned the treeless plain where
the men played baseball into an official-sized, snappy-looking diamond.
He procured white and red sand for free, and a truck to transport it. The
men chopped rectangles out of the grass for base paths. They erected
two dugouts, two small changing rooms, and a fence made of poles.
"When we finished, it was a tremendous stadium," Chávez later noted.
"We inaugurated it with a party that seemed like a festival." Chávez
believed it was the second best stadium in Barinas, outdone only by the
one where he played in the local league. The soldiers invited the public
to watch them play whenever they wanted.
His superiors also assigned the dynamic young second lieutenant
the task of recruiting candidates for themilitary academy. Chávez regularly
visited the high schools of sprawling Barinas state — all ten of
them by now — giving talks to seniors and encouraging them to apply
to the academy. He took his evangelization campaign to the airwaves,
too, stopping byRadio Barinas to put in his plug. Military superiors
in Caracas gave him and other recruiters a guide to read, but Chávez
injected his own commentaries. "I never told them they would have a
sure salary, but rather I spoke to them aboutBolívar and what [Cuban
independence hero José]Martí said about him." He took to painting the
saying on the walls of thebarracks. He got some soldiers to whom he
gave painting classes to help.
Chávez also won permission to write a weekly column in the localnewspaper El Espacio — the space. He wrote about history and his
unit's activities — everything from playing sports to raising rabbits
and tending a tropical fruit orchard. In another precursor of his presidency,
Chávez wrote about a "civilian-military union." Besides the
weekly column, Chávez even found time to call the numbers at bingo
games and serve as master of ceremonies at the local beauty pageant.
His energy was endless.
Chávez's unit was dedicated to combating guerrillas, but he never
encountered any in Barinas. The closest he came occurred one day while
he was assigned to a sleepy outpost outside the capital and found an abandoned
car. It was a black Mercedes-Benz riddled with bullet holes. He
learned that it had belonged to a group of guerrillas killed in a shoot-out
with soldiers a decade earlier. Chávez pried open the trunk and found
a stash of moldy books, almost all of them Marxist. He brought them to
the military post, repaired them, and set up a small library.
He had plenty of time to read and think — the nights were long and
lonely in the llanos. There were books by Lenin, Mao, and otherleftists,
but the one that interested him the most was The Times of Ezequiel Zamora . Chávez immersed himself in the books during the few months
he spent at the outpost, deepening the foundation that began with his
discovery of Bolívar in the military academy. "By the time I was 21 or 22,
I made myself a man of the left," he later commented.
His two years in Barinas also served as a testing ground for his
ideas about a new kind of soldier and a new kind of relationship with
society — inspired by Bolívar, Zamora, Torrijos, Velasco, and other figures.
"It was a very intense period, in which I was involved inside and
outside of the battalion in sports, journalism, recruiting students and
hosting the beauty pageants . . . The most important thing was that the
Battalion of Hunters started to have another profile. It was no longer
an antiguerrilla unit separated from the people, hated at times by
missions" he launched in hundreds of barrios as president, Chávez contacted
a friend of his who was the head of the National Institutes of
Sports in Barinas and recruited trainers to coach the soldiers for free.
The program was a big success. For two years straight the Cedeno's
soldiers were the interbattalion champions in baseball, soccer, volleyball,
basketball, and track and field. Chávez turned the treeless plain where
the men played baseball into an official-sized, snappy-looking diamond.
He procured white and red sand for free, and a truck to transport it. The
men chopped rectangles out of the grass for base paths. They erected
two dugouts, two small changing rooms, and a fence made of poles.
"When we finished, it was a tremendous stadium," Chávez later noted.
"We inaugurated it with a party that seemed like a festival." Chávez
believed it was the second best stadium in Barinas, outdone only by the
one where he played in the local league. The soldiers invited the public
to watch them play whenever they wanted.
His superiors also assigned the dynamic young second lieutenant
the task of recruiting candidates for themilitary academy. Chávez regularly
visited the high schools of sprawling Barinas state — all ten of
them by now — giving talks to seniors and encouraging them to apply
to the academy. He took his evangelization campaign to the airwaves,
too, stopping byRadio Barinas to put in his plug. Military superiors
in Caracas gave him and other recruiters a guide to read, but Chávez
injected his own commentaries. "I never told them they would have a
sure salary, but rather I spoke to them aboutBolívar and what [Cuban
independence hero José]Martí said about him." He took to painting the
saying on the walls of thebarracks. He got some soldiers to whom he
gave painting classes to help.
Chávez also won permission to write a weekly column in the localnewspaper El Espacio — the space. He wrote about history and his
unit's activities — everything from playing sports to raising rabbits
and tending a tropical fruit orchard. In another precursor of his presidency,
Chávez wrote about a "civilian-military union." Besides the
weekly column, Chávez even found time to call the numbers at bingo
games and serve as master of ceremonies at the local beauty pageant.
His energy was endless.
Chávez's unit was dedicated to combating guerrillas, but he never
encountered any in Barinas. The closest he came occurred one day while
he was assigned to a sleepy outpost outside the capital and found an abandoned
car. It was a black Mercedes-Benz riddled with bullet holes. He
learned that it had belonged to a group of guerrillas killed in a shoot-out
with soldiers a decade earlier. Chávez pried open the trunk and found
a stash of moldy books, almost all of them Marxist. He brought them to
the military post, repaired them, and set up a small library.
He had plenty of time to read and think — the nights were long and
lonely in the llanos. There were books by Lenin, Mao, and otherleftists,
but the one that interested him the most was The Times of Ezequiel Zamora . Chávez immersed himself in the books during the few months
he spent at the outpost, deepening the foundation that began with his
discovery of Bolívar in the military academy. "By the time I was 21 or 22,
I made myself a man of the left," he later commented.
His two years in Barinas also served as a testing ground for his
ideas about a new kind of soldier and a new kind of relationship with
society — inspired by Bolívar, Zamora, Torrijos, Velasco, and other figures.
"It was a very intense period, in which I was involved inside and
outside of the battalion in sports, journalism, recruiting students and
hosting the beauty pageants . . . The most important thing was that the
Battalion of Hunters started to have another profile. It was no longer
an antiguerrilla unit separated from the people, hated at times by
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