Bolivian President Evo Morales inaugurated a new football (soccer) stadium on June 24 in the central department of Cochabamba, naming the new athletic facility after the late Venezuelan revolutionary leader and president, Hugo Chavez.
During his inauguration speech, Morales highlighted Chavez's legacy, saying: “He was a leader who possessed so much solidarity, as a president he taught us not be afraid of those who try to dominate us.”
Morales, an avid football fan who was signed to play in the country’s first league, also emphasised the importance of government investment in sports related infrastructure projects. “Delivering a soccer field is sort of similar to building a hospital because athletic activity is healthy for everyone,” Morales said.
The 15,000-seat stadium was financed and built as part of Morales’s flagship social welfare program, which has carried out more than 5000 small-scale infrastructure projects, including the building of medical clinics, schools and gymnasiums.
[Abridged from TeleSUR English.]
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