Met future strongman
Hugo Chávez in 1974 when Chávez and a dozen fellow cadets from the Bolivarian Military University of Venezuela traveled to Ayacucho, Peru to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho. Alvarado gave each of them a pocket edition of La Revolución Nacional Peruana ("The Peruvian National Revolution"). Chávez kept the book with him constantly, but lost it after his arrest for leading a failed coup d'état in 1992.