Juan Velasco Alvarado around Lima, to show their respect and gratitude for his efforts on their behalf. Although General Velasco is still remembered fondly by small left-leaning circles, his legacy remains largely controversial. In 1974, a then relatively unknown Hugo Chávez and around one dozen fellow cadets and soldiers, all youths, traveled to Ayacucho, Peru to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the eponymous Battle of Ayacucho. There, they were personally greeted by General Velasco. Velasco gave each of them a miniature pocket edition of "La Revolución Nacional Peruana" ("The Peruvian National Revolution"). The cadets also noted Velasco's perceived close relationship with both the
Salomón Lerner Ghitis (UNI) in Lima. Later he attended post-gradual courses at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, in 1968, and at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel, in 1989. As a student, he joined politics and became the chairman of the students' wing of the social-democratic APRA party. Under the left-wing military administration of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75), he was general manager of the Public Fish-Meal and Oil Marketing Enterprise (EPCHAP). In the government of Velasco's successor, Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Lerner was vice minister of foreign trade. In 1997, he managed CPN Radio channel, and from October 1997 to March 1998,