studies of military science, of the general sciences . . . in sum, I
liked it, man. The courtyard.Bolívar in the background . . . I felt like a fish
in water. As if I had discovered the essence or part of the essence of life, of
my truevocation."
Chávez was finding a new calling — and leaving behind an old
one. On one of his first leaves a few months after entering the academy,
he bought a bouquet of flowers and went to the Southern General
Cemetery in Caracas. He had read that Latigo Chávez was buried there.
Dressed in his blue uniform and white gloves, he asked a gravedigger for
his hero's tomb. When he found it, Chávez took off his gloves, cleaned
the tomb, and lit a candle. He left the flowers on top of the grave.
He was doing penance. His dream of becoming a professional baseball
player was shifting to new pursuits. "I went because I had a knot
inside me, like a debt that had been forming since that oath, that prayer
. . . I was forgetting it, and now I wanted to be a soldier . . . I felt bad for
that reason . . . It was as if I was saying, Forgive me, Isaías, I'm not going
to follow that path. Now I am a soldier."
When he left the cemetery, he said, "I was liberated."
3
A Revolutionary Is Born
Hugo Chávez's arrival at the military academy in August 1971 at the age of
seventeen coincided with a radical restructuring of the school by a group
of nationalistic military officers. They wanted to givecadets a broader,
more humanistic foundation than the traditional course of studies
focusing exclusively on military sciences. They called it theAndrés Bello
Plan, for the nineteenth-century Venezuelan poet and philosopher.
For the first time in the school's history, cadets were to receive
university-level degrees and needed a high school diploma to be
admitted. They were also to study the liberal arts along with military
history and strategy. The school's directors brought in civilian professors
to teach economics, political science, world history, constitutional
law, physics, chemistry, engineering, medicine, and other subjects,
including classes that looked at Venezuela's history and current reality.
The soldiers could go on to graduate studies at civilian universities.
Paradoxically, cadets who were undergoing training to combat a
fading leftist guerrilla movement also started reading the Communist Manifesto . Chávez delved into everything from Mao to Clausewitz to
Napoleon to Claus Heller, a Prussian general who wrote about the military
as an agent of social change. Some of the cadets' studies ran even
further afield from the traditional course material of their predecessors.
One who entered a year after Chávez and became a close ally,Raúl Isaías Baduel, specialized in Eastern philosophy and meditation.
He eventually took to burning incense in his room, playing Gregorian
chants, and reading Sun Tzu. Friends nicknamed him El Tao.
TheAndrés Bello Plan marked a clear divide between the old guard
and the new in the Venezuelanmilitary. Unlike their predecessors, most
of the new cadets did not study at US-run counterinsurgency institutions
like theSchool of the Americas, then based in Panama and today at
Fort Benning, Georgia. If they did attend, they went "well-fortified withprogressive ideas." The school, dubbed the "School of the Assassins" by
critics, was infamous for training some of Latin America's most notorious
dictators and human rights abusers. They included General Hugo
Bánzer of Bolivia and, later, many of the "elite" Salvadoran troops that
massacred nearly a thousand elderly men, women, and children in El
Mozote in December 1981.
Even before the Andrés Bello Plan, Venezuela's military differed
significantly from many others in Latin America. There was no discrimination
in Venezuela's armed forces — anyone could reach the
highest ranks or enter the prestigious military academy. There was no
"military caste" like those in Chile and Argentina, where the sons of
the light-skinned elites dominated
liked it, man. The courtyard.Bolívar in the background . . . I felt like a fish
in water. As if I had discovered the essence or part of the essence of life, of
my truevocation."
Chávez was finding a new calling — and leaving behind an old
one. On one of his first leaves a few months after entering the academy,
he bought a bouquet of flowers and went to the Southern General
Cemetery in Caracas. He had read that Latigo Chávez was buried there.
Dressed in his blue uniform and white gloves, he asked a gravedigger for
his hero's tomb. When he found it, Chávez took off his gloves, cleaned
the tomb, and lit a candle. He left the flowers on top of the grave.
He was doing penance. His dream of becoming a professional baseball
player was shifting to new pursuits. "I went because I had a knot
inside me, like a debt that had been forming since that oath, that prayer
. . . I was forgetting it, and now I wanted to be a soldier . . . I felt bad for
that reason . . . It was as if I was saying, Forgive me, Isaías, I'm not going
to follow that path. Now I am a soldier."
When he left the cemetery, he said, "I was liberated."
3
A Revolutionary Is Born
Hugo Chávez's arrival at the military academy in August 1971 at the age of
seventeen coincided with a radical restructuring of the school by a group
of nationalistic military officers. They wanted to givecadets a broader,
more humanistic foundation than the traditional course of studies
focusing exclusively on military sciences. They called it theAndrés Bello
Plan, for the nineteenth-century Venezuelan poet and philosopher.
For the first time in the school's history, cadets were to receive
university-level degrees and needed a high school diploma to be
admitted. They were also to study the liberal arts along with military
history and strategy. The school's directors brought in civilian professors
to teach economics, political science, world history, constitutional
law, physics, chemistry, engineering, medicine, and other subjects,
including classes that looked at Venezuela's history and current reality.
The soldiers could go on to graduate studies at civilian universities.
Paradoxically, cadets who were undergoing training to combat a
fading leftist guerrilla movement also started reading the Communist Manifesto . Chávez delved into everything from Mao to Clausewitz to
Napoleon to Claus Heller, a Prussian general who wrote about the military
as an agent of social change. Some of the cadets' studies ran even
further afield from the traditional course material of their predecessors.
One who entered a year after Chávez and became a close ally,Raúl Isaías Baduel, specialized in Eastern philosophy and meditation.
He eventually took to burning incense in his room, playing Gregorian
chants, and reading Sun Tzu. Friends nicknamed him El Tao.
TheAndrés Bello Plan marked a clear divide between the old guard
and the new in the Venezuelanmilitary. Unlike their predecessors, most
of the new cadets did not study at US-run counterinsurgency institutions
like theSchool of the Americas, then based in Panama and today at
Fort Benning, Georgia. If they did attend, they went "well-fortified withprogressive ideas." The school, dubbed the "School of the Assassins" by
critics, was infamous for training some of Latin America's most notorious
dictators and human rights abusers. They included General Hugo
Bánzer of Bolivia and, later, many of the "elite" Salvadoran troops that
massacred nearly a thousand elderly men, women, and children in El
Mozote in December 1981.
Even before the Andrés Bello Plan, Venezuela's military differed
significantly from many others in Latin America. There was no discrimination
in Venezuela's armed forces — anyone could reach the
highest ranks or enter the prestigious military academy. There was no
"military caste" like those in Chile and Argentina, where the sons of
the light-skinned elites dominated
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