Földvári Books

Signed Manuscript Diary of Hugo Chavez, The Former Venezuelan President

[Chávez, Hugo]

Curso de Paracaidismo (24 de junio al 14 de julio) 1974. [Parachute Course. June 24 to 14 July 1974.]

[Venezuela]: 1974. In custom made paper cover. Saddle-stitched. Paper-taped spine. [21] leaves. 22 pages of handwritten text in blue ink, signed on the last page. In fine condition.

Unique, signed manuscript diary of the former Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, written during his parachute course at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas between June 24 and July 14, 1974.

With detailed daily entries about his political ideas, military training, and his private life as a young cadet, the “diary reveals the evolution of his political aspirations and his incipient vision of himself as someone predestined, a man with a historical mission”. (Marcano, Tyszka, 2007. p. 39)

1974 was the 19-year-old Chavez’s last year at the military academy and, according to Richard Gott, author of the first book about Chávez in English, also the year “Chávez was first politicized”. As a cadet “with a growing admiration for Simón Bolívar”, Chávez was chosen for a special trip to Peru in the same year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Peruvian independence from Spain, which “provided his first direct exposure to a social experiment launched by a progressive, although dictatorial, military man, Juan Velasco Alvarado”. By the time Chávez graduated from the academy “he had begun to think about the need for the military to have a role in running the country”.

In his present, 1974 diary, Chávez takes notes about his ideas and quotes both Bolívar “who abandons all to be useful to his country loses nothing, but gains all he consecrates”, as well as Che Guevara "The present is a time for struggle; the future is ours.” He also gives an account of his paratrooper training from his arrival to the military base to his first jump which he describes as “one of the greatest experiences in my life. Perhaps the most exciting in my twenties”. In his last entry on July 14, 1974, which he also signed, Chávez says “Thanks to God, I am a paratrooper!” His military education and being a paratrooper played an important role in Chávez’s career. He led the MBR-200 coup attempt in February 1992 as commanding officer of a parachute regiment which he took over in Maracay in 1991, and the red beret of his parachute regiment remained his signature throughout his life. Besides his political ideas and the training process, Chávez confesses about personal issues of his private life, feelings and relationships, and also writes about less intimate affairs such as movies he watched like Spinout with Elvis Presley or The Exorcist.


This original manuscript covers a full chapter of Chávez’s diary from the period between March and September 1974, which was published as a four-chapter-book in 2018 under the title Diario del cadete Hugo Chávez (Diary of the Cadet Hugo Chávez) based on the typescript of the handwritten diary.

Literature: Bart, J.: Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution. Hanover: Steerforth Press, 2007.; Chávez, Hugo Frías: Diario del cadete Hugo Chávez. Fundación Comandante Eterno Hugo Chávez, 2018.; Gott, R.: In the Shadow of the Liberator: Hugo Chávez and the Transformation of Venezuela. London, New York: Verso, 2000.; Levin, J.: Hugo Chavez. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. p. 56.; Marcano, C.; Tyszka, A. B.: Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President. New York: Random House, 2007.

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Price: €15,000.00