Leftist militarism: The influence of Velasquism in Chávez

Abstract

Peru lived his own revolution in the sixties. In 1968, a group of army officers led by Juan Velasco Alvarado took the power in the Andean Country. The subsequent military regime lasted until 1975, when he was expulsed by another officer: Francisco Morales Bermudez.2 Velasco Alvarado`s regime was not a conventional regime. The majority of Latin American military dictatorships were conservatives (except Cuba), but the Peruvian model was a left wing regimen. In the 1970s, during the Velasquism, a very young Hugo Chávez visited Peru as a Venezuelan military man. He and his mates were invited by the Peruvian leader to celebrate the sixth centenary of the Battle of Ayacucho. In this trip, Chavez was amazed by Peru’s political model. He was only 20 years old, but his experience marked his posterior way of understanding politics.