"El destino del Ejército es guarnecer la frontera. ¡Dios nos preserve de que vuelva sus armas contra los ciudadanos"

Simon Bolivar

 He saw the light of a fire, turned his horse towards it and it showed him the way!

It is highly inconceivable to talk about baseball and Latin America these days without mentioning the name of the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, since this man was a decent baseball player in his heydays. Nevertheless, one day, fate commissioned this multitalented sportsman to become a soldier and a politician in order to denounce the plight of the have not in a country of abundance. A tale tell us that he became disillusioned with the way in which his country was run and the ill-treatment of the little people had to put up with that he decided to do something about it. Indeed, there was discontentment among the classes in Venezuela and all that was needed was to set the kindling alight, in anger,  in order to inflame the quiescent fire latent in the heart of many and, as it is always the case, in those instances of conflicts, the outcome was not a pretty one since it brought tragic consequences to the participants and bystanders. Indeed, the extraordinary events that followed, produced, and weaved together, passion and tragedy of great sadness. Nonetheless, there were obvious reasons for that historical experience which still lives on long memories since it represented the laying of the foundation of a new form of government and it made Hugo Chávez Frías the Champion of the have not. At the time, many thought that changes to the system, which was in place, were highly unlikely and impractical owing to the economical interest and investment that major players and multinational companies had in the country but Hugo Chávez Frías had other ideas and one of those ideas was not to allow the voice of the people to be silenced. The system ignored the little people for far too long and they retaliated at the ballotboxes. Past experiences told us then one more time that one cannot starve the cow and expect to milk it without retribution.  

P.Figueras