Pedro Pérez Delgado: The Last Man on Horseback Who Defended the Rights of the People (+seeding)

Published at: 08/11/2025 08:26 AM

The great warrior, Pedro Pérez Delgado, known as Maisanta and the Last Man on Horseback, died on November 8, 1924, in the Liberator Castle in Puerto Cabello. The legendary revolutionary soldier sustained the libertarian struggles against the injustices of the Creole oligarchy during the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, imprisoned until the last days of his life, he always remained on the fighting foot.

Maisanta was a boy who grew up in the rugged life of the plain, alongside cattle, crossing rivers and struggling upstream and downstream in the bongo. Where he learned to have accurate aim and to handle both the knife and the machete with skill, in addition to knowing healing concoctions and branches. From the plain he obtained his proverb magic, which could not have been bequeathed to him by any other context than that of the native heart of our country, from which improvised poetry was born, with authentic naturalness and purity.

In the same way, from a very young age, Pedro Pérez excelled in combat, taking part in the La Mata Carmelera meeting, in 1898, where Joaquín Crespo lost his life. Around 1899, Cipriano Castro sent him to Sabaneta as Civil and Military Chief of the area. Since 1914, he was an official in the government of Juan Vicente Gómez, but then he began his guerrilla activities against the dictatorship. He participated in the Battle of Guasdualito, in 1921, and in the suppression of the Arévalo Cedeño uprising.

Commander Hugo Chávez was running through his veins the blood of this courageous revolutionary soldier, who fought for the freedom and justice of the Venezuelan people, since Maisanta was his great-grandfather, so on several occasions he referred to the heroic struggles of his ancestor against the abuses of the powerful and for the dispossessed classes of our country.

Mazo News Team