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
Juan Bautista Alvarado Frémont arrived in Monterey at the beginning of 1846. Afraid of foreign aggression, Castro assembled his militia, with Alvarado second in command, but Frémont went north to Oregon instead. An unstable political situation in Mexico strained relations among the Californios and it seemed that civil war would break out between north and south. On July 7, Commodore John D. Sloat occupied Monterey, declaring to the citizenry that the Mexican–American War had begun. Pico, Castro, and Alvarado set aside their differences to focus on the American threat, but by the end of August, Pico and Castro fled to Mexico, and Alvarado