tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22011928122064679492023-06-15T10:38:57.789-07:00Che Guevara Fans BlogBiography , life , secretsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-11582385221210079932011-07-15T02:53:00.000-07:002011-07-15T02:53:00.241-07:00Che Guevara (Documental completo)<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6QfuOOJzByg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-6916802871960895712011-07-15T02:50:00.001-07:002011-07-15T02:53:20.388-07:00Che Guevara: Guerrilla to the End<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AckQHHab0Qk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-20911914793268335712011-07-12T02:08:00.001-07:002011-07-12T02:08:43.319-07:00Che guevara`s life Documentaries RBG Tube PanAfrican TV v2 0 Free Revolutionary Audio Video<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TyaG8pIPIBU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-61795954121090069982011-06-26T13:25:00.001-07:002011-06-26T13:25:27.657-07:00CHE GUEVARA LAST INTERVIEW<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vBYUOOEHbJw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-12556256497318462962011-05-16T06:53:00.000-07:002011-05-16T06:53:26.358-07:00Che Guevara rare photos (1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKbyDnTvsaM/TdEsMopyfmI/AAAAAAAAAzI/GlvNkj9VBUQ/s1600/che+guevara+rare+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKbyDnTvsaM/TdEsMopyfmI/AAAAAAAAAzI/GlvNkj9VBUQ/s320/che+guevara+rare+photo.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UrSknxVx10I/TdEsSgs_6mI/AAAAAAAAAz8/cPzCJyQfD_0/s1600/untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UrSknxVx10I/TdEsSgs_6mI/AAAAAAAAAz8/cPzCJyQfD_0/s1600/untitled.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-16881066005223270732011-03-28T00:38:00.001-07:002011-03-28T00:38:36.870-07:00Che Guevara's Last Moments and Death<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/z0vHvHmoioE" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-8196793246090415382010-12-25T00:58:00.001-08:002010-12-25T00:58:00.919-08:00CHE READS A POEM<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TJunXdWoLiY&hl=en_US&fs=1" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TJunXdWoLiY&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-89780373863207876972010-10-15T01:51:00.000-07:002010-10-15T01:51:06.644-07:00The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified<span style="font-size: small;"></span><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">by Peter Kornbluh</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On October 9th, 1967, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was put to death by Bolivian soldiers, trained, equipped and guided by U.S. Green Beret and CIA operatives. His execution remains a historic and controversial event; and thirty years later, the circumstances of his guerrilla foray into Bolivia, his capture, killing, and burial are still the subject of intense public interest and discussion around the world.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As part of the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, the National Security Archive's Cuba Documentation Project is posting a selection of key CIA, State Department, and Pentagon documentation relating to Guevara and his death. This electronic documents book is compiled from declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive, and by authors of two new books on Guevara: Jorge Castañeda's Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (Knopf), and Henry Butterfield Ryan's The Fall of Che Guevara (Oxford University Press). The selected documents, presented in order of the events they depict, provide only a partial picture of U.S. intelligence and military assessments, reports and extensive operations to track and "destroy" Che Guevara's guerrillas in Bolivia; thousands of CIA and military records on Guevara remain classified. But they do offer significant and valuable information on the high-level U.S. interest in tracking his revolutionary activities, and U.S. and Bolivian actions leading up to his death.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Contents:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">* Declassified Documents</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">* The Death of Che Guevara: A Chronology</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">* New Books on Che Guevara (further information)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Click on the document icon to view each document.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIA, The Fall of Che Guevara and the Changing Face of the Cuban Revolution, October 18, 1965: This intelligence memorandum, written by a young CIA analyst, Brian Latell, presents an assessment that Guevara's preeminence as a leader of the Cuban revolution has waned, and his internal and international policies have been abandoned. In domestic policy, his economic strategy of rapid industrialization has "brought the economy to its lowest point since Castro came to power," the paper argues. In foreign policy, he "never wavered from his firm revolutionary stand, even as other Cuban leaders began to devote most of their attention to the internal problems of the revolution." With Guevara no longer in Cuba, the CIA's assessment concludes, "there is no doubt that Castro's more cautious position on exporting revolution, as well as his different economic approach, led to Che's downfall."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">U.S. Army, Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Activation, Organization and Training of the 2d Battalion - Bolivian Army, April 28, 1967: This memorandum of understanding, written by the head of the U.S. MILGP (Military Group) in Bolivia and signed by the commander of the Bolivian armed forces, created the Second Ranger Battalion to pursue Che Guevara's guerrilla band. The agreement specifies the mission of a sixteen-member Green Beret team of U.S. special forces, drawn from the 8th Special Forces division of the U.S. Army Forces at Southcom in Panama, to "produce a rapid reaction force capable of counterinsurgency operations and skilled to the degree that four months of intensive training can be absorbed by the personnel presented by the Bolivian Armed Forces." In October, the 2nd Battalion, aided by U.S. military and CIA personnel, did engage and capture Che Guevara's small band of rebels.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">White House Memorandum, May 11, 1967: This short memo to President Lyndon Johnson records U.S. efforts to track Guevara's movements, and keep the President informed of his whereabouts. Written by presidential advisor, Walt Rostow, the memo reports that Guevara may be "operational" and not dead as the CIA apparently believed after his disappearance from Cuba.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIA, Intelligence Information Cable, October 17, 1967: This CIA cable summarizes intelligence, gathered from September 1966 through June 1967, on the disagreement between the Soviet Union and Cuba over Che Guevara's mission to Bolivia. The cable provides specific information on Leonid Brezhnev's objections to "the dispatch of Ernesto Che Guevara to Bolivia" and Brezhnev's decision to send the Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin's visit to Cuba in June, 1967 to discuss the Kremlin's opposition with Castro. CIA sources reported that Kosygin accused Castro of "harming the communist cause through his sponsorship of guerrilla activity...and through providing support to various anti-government groups, which although they claimed to be 'socialist' or communist, were engaged in disputes with the 'legitimate' Latin American communist parties...favored by the USSR." In replying Castro stated that Cuba would support the "right of every Latin American to contribute to the liberation of his country." Castro also "accused the USSR of having turned its back upon its own revolutionary tradition and of having moved to a point where it would refuse to support any revolutionary movement unless the actions of the latter contributed to the achievement of Soviet objectives...."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">White House Memorandum, October 9, 1967: Walt Rostow reports in this memorandum to President Johnson that unconfirmed information suggests that the Bolivian battalion--"the one we have been training"--"got Che Guevara."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">White House Memorandum, October 10, 1967: In a short update to Walt Rostow, William Bowdler reports there is still uncertainty about whether Che Guevara was "among the casualties of the October 8 engagement."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">White House Memorandum, October 11, 1967: In another daily update, Walt Rostow reports to President Johnson that "we are 99% sure that 'Che' Guevara is dead." Rostow believes the decision to execute Guevara "is stupid," but he also points out his death "shows the soundness of our 'preventive medicine' assistance to countries facing incipient insurgency--it was the Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion, trained by our Green Berets from June-September of this year, that cornered him and got him."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">White House Memorandum, October 13, 1967: In a final update, Walt Rostow informs Lyndon Johnson that the White House has intelligence information--still censored--that "removes any doubt that 'Che' Guevara is dead."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIA Debriefing of F�lix Rodr�guez, June 3, 1975 When Che Guevara was executed in La Higuera, one CIA official was present--a Cuban-American operative named F�lix Rodr�guez. Rodr�guez, who used the codename "F�lix Ramos" in Bolivia and posed as a Bolivian military officer, was secretly debriefed on his role by the CIA's office of the Inspector General in June, 1975. (At the time the CIA was the focus of a major Congressional investigation into its assassination operations against foreign leaders.) In this debriefing--discovered in a declassified file marked 'F�lix Rodr�guez' by journalist David Corn--Rodr�guez recounts the details of his mission to Bolivia where the CIA sent him, and another Cuban-American agent, Gustavo Villoldo, to assist the capture of Guevara and destruction of his guerrilla band. Rodr�guez and Villoldo became part of a CIA task force in Bolivia that included the case officer for the operation, "Jim", another Cuban American, Mario Osiris Riveron, and two agents in charge of communications in Santa Clara. Rodr�guez emerged as the most important member of the group; after a lengthy interrogation of one captured guerrilla, he was instrumental in focusing the efforts to the 2nd Ranger Battalion focus on the Villagrande region where he believed Guevara's rebels were operating. Although he apparently was under CIA instructions to "do everything possible to keep him alive," Rodr�guez transmitted the order to execute Guevara from the Bolivian High Command to the soldiers at La Higueras--he also directed them not to shoot Guevara in the face so that his wounds would appear to be combat-related--and personally informed Che that he would be killed. After the execution, Rodr�guez took Che's Rolex watch, often proudly showing it to reporters during the ensuing years.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">State Department Cable, Official Confirmation of Death of Che Guevara, October 18, 1967: Ten days after his capture, U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Douglas Henderson, transmitted confirmation of Guevara's death to Washington. The evidence included autopsy reports, and fingerprint analysis conducted by Argentine police officials on Che's amputated hands. (Che's hands were cut off to provide proof that he was actually dead; under the supervision of CIA agent Gustavo Villoldo, his body was then secretly buried by at a desolate airstrip at Villagrande where it was only discovered in June 1997.) The various death documents, notes Ambassador Henderson, leave "unsaid the time of death"--"an attempt to bridge the difference between a series of earlier divergent statements from Armed Forces sources, ranging from assertions that he died during or shortly after battle to those suggesting he survived at least twenty-four hours."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Southern Command, Activities of the 2nd Ranger Battalion and Death of Che Guevara: The U.S. Special Forces Group, which trained the Bolivan military units that captured Che Guevara, conducted an extensive debriefing of members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion. This report, based on interviews by a member of the U.S. Mobile Training Team in Bolivia with key Bolivian commanders, documents the military movements, and engagement with Che Guevara's guerrilla band. The sources also provide key details and descriptions of his capture, interrogation and execution, although it makes no mention of the CIA official, F�lix Rodr�guez, who was present. Guevara's last words to the soldier who shot him are reported as: "Know this now, you are killing a man."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Department of State, Guevara's Death--The Meaning for Latin America, October 12, 1967: In this interpretive report for Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Thomas Hughes, the Latin America specialist at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, summarizes the importance of "the defeat of the foremost tactician of the Cuban revolutionary strategy." The analyst predicts that Guevara "will be eulogized as the model revolutionary who met a heroic death." The circumstances of his failure in Bolivia, however, will strengthen the position of "peaceful line" communist party groups in the Hemisphere. Castro, he argues, will be subject to "we told you so" criticism from older leftist parties, but his "spell on the more youthful elements in the hemisphere will not be broken." The analysis fails to incorporate evidence of the disagreement between Castro and Guevara on the prospects for revolution in Latin America, or the Soviet pressure on Cuba to reduce support for insurgent movements in the Hemisphere.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIA, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Fidel Castro Delivers Eulogy on Che Guevara, October 19, 1967: On October 18, 1967, the third day of national mourning, Fidel Castro delivered a eulogy to a crowd of almost one million at the Plaza de La Revolución in Havana. The next day, the speech is transcribed and distributed by FBIS, a CIA transcription agency that records, and translates news and television from around the world. Calling Guevara "an artist of revolutionary warfare," Castro warns that "they who sing victory" over his death--a reference to the U.S.--" are mistaken. They are mistaken who believe that his death is the defeat of his ideas, the defeat of his tactics, the defeat of his guerrilla concepts." This speech contributes immeasurably to the making of the revolutionary icon that Che Guevara became in the ensuing years. "If we want to know how we want our children to be," Castro concludes, "we should say, with all our revolutionary mind and heart: We want them to be like Che."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE DEATH OF CHE GUEVARA:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A CHRONOLOGY</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Compiled by:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paola Evans, Kim Healey, Peter Kornbluh, Ramón Cruz and Hannah Elinson</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 3, 1965: In a public speech, Fidel Castro reads a "Farewell" letter written by Che in April, in which Che resigns from all of his official positions within the Cuban government. The letter, which Che apparently never intended to be made public, states that "I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution...and I say goodbye to you, to the comrades, to your people, who are now mine." (CIA Intelligence Memorandum, "Castro and Communism: The Cuban Revolution in Perspective," 5/9/66)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 18, 1965: A CIA Intelligence Memorandum discusses what analysts perceive as Che Guevara�s fall from power within the Cuban government beginning in 1964. It states that at the end of 1963, Guevara�s plan of "rapid industrialization and centralization during the first years of the Revolution brought the economy to its lowest point since Castro came to power." "Guevara�s outlook, which approximated present -day Chinese--rather than Soviet--economic practice, was behind the controversy." In July 1964, "two important cabinet appointments signaled the power struggle over internal economic policy which culminated in Guevara�s elimination." Another conflict was that Guevara wanted to export the Cuban Revolution to different parts of Latin America and Africa, while "other Cuban leaders began to devote most of their attention to the internal problems of the Revolution." In December, 1964, Guevara departed on a three-month trip to the United States, Africa, and China. When he returned, according to the CIA report, his economic and foreign policies were in disfavor and he left to start revolutionary struggles in other parts of the world. (CIA Intelligence Memorandum, "The Fall of Che Guevara and the Changing Face of the Cuban Revolution," 10/18/65)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">FALL, 1966: Che Guevara arrives in Bolivia sometime between the second week of September and the first of November of 1966, according to different sources. He enters the country with forged Uruguayan passports to organize and lead a communist guerrilla movement. Che chooses Bolivia as the revolutionary base for various reasons. First, Bolivia is of lower priority than Caribbean Basin countries to US security interests and poses a less immediate threat, "... the Yanquis wouldn�t concern themselves... ." Second, Bolivia�s social conditions and poverty are such that Bolivia is considered susceptible to revolutionary ideology. Finally, Bolivia shares a border with five other countries, which would allow the revolution to spread easily if the guerrillas are successful. (Harris, 60, 73; Rojo 193-194; Rodríguez:1, 157;Rodríguez:1, 198)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SPRING, 1967: From March to August of 1967, Che Guevara and his guerrilla band strike "pretty much at will" against the Bolivian Armed Forces, which totals about twenty thousand men. The guerrillas lose only one man compared to 30 of the Bolivians during these six months. (James, 250, NYT 9/16/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">APRIL 28, 1967: General Ovando, of the Bolivian Armed Forces, and the U.S. Army Section signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the Bolivian Army "which clearly defines the terms of U.S.-Bolivian Armed Forces cooperation in the activation, organization, and training of this unit."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">MAY 11, 1967: Walt Rostow, presidential advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson, sends a message to the President saying that he received the first credible report that "Che" Guevara is alive and operating in South America, although more evidence is needed. (Rostow 05/11/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">JUNE, 1967: Cuban-American CIA agent Félix Rodríguez receives a phone call from a CIA officer, Larry S., who proposes a special assignment for him in South America in which he will use his skills in unconventional warfare, counter-guerrilla operations and communications. The assignment is to assist the Bolivians in tracking down and capturing Che Guevara and his band. His partner will be "Eduardo González" and Rodríguez is to use the cover name "Félix Ramos Medina." (Rodr�guez:1, 148)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">JUNE 26-30, 1967: Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin visits Cuba for discussions with Fidel Castro. According to a CIA intelligence cable, the primary purpose of his "trip to Havana June 26-30, 1967 was to inform Castro concerning the Middle East Crisis...A secondary but important reason for the trip was to discuss with Castro the subject of Cuban revolutionary activity in Latin America." The Soviet Premier criticizes the dispatch of Che Guevara to Bolivia and accuses Castro of "harming the communist cause through his sponsorship of guerrilla activity...and through providing support to various anti-government groups, which although they claimed to be "socialist" or communist, were engaged in disputes with the "legitimate" Latin American communist parties, those favored by the USSR." In reply Castro stated that Cuba will support the "right of every Latin American to contribute to the liberation of his country." (CIA Intelligence Information Cable, 10/17/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">AUGUST 2, 1967: Rodríguez and González arrive in La Paz, Bolivia. They are met by their case officer, Jim, another CIA agent, and a Bolivian immigration officer. The CIA station in La Paz is run by John Tilton; eventually the CIA�s Guevara task force is joined by another anti-Castro Cuban-American agent, Gustavo Villoldo. (Rodríguez:1, 162)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">AUGUST 31, 1967: The Bolivian army scores its first victory against the guerrillas, wiping out one-third of Che�s men. José Castillo Chávez, also known as Paco, is captured and the guerrillas are forced to retreat. Che�s health begins to deteriorate. (James, 250, 269)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 3, 1967: Félix Rodríguez flies with Major Arnaldo Saucedo from Santa Cruz to Vallegrande to interrogate Paco. (Rodr�guez: 1, 167)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 15, 1967: The Bolivian Government air-drops leaflets offering a $4,200 reward for the capture of Che Guevara. (NYT 9/16/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 18, 1967: Fifteen members of a Communist group, who were providing supplies to the guerrillas in the southeastern jungles of Bolivia, are arrested. (NYT 9/19/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 22, 1967: Che�s guerrillas arrive at Alto Seco village in Bolivia. Inti Peredo, a Bolivian guerrilla, gives the villagers a lecture on the objectives of the guerrilla movement. The group leaves later that night after purchasing a large amount of food. (Harris, 123)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to Jon Lee Anderson�s account, Che takes the food from a grocery store without paying for it after discovering that the local authorities in Alto Seco have left to inform the army about the guerrilla�s position. (Anderson, 785)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 22, 1967: Guevara Arze, the Bolivian Foreign Minister, provides evidence to the Organization of American States to prove that Che Guevara is indeed leading the guerrilla operations in Bolivia. Excerpts taken from captured documents, including comparisons of handwriting, fingerprints and photographs, suggests that the guerrillas are comprised of Cubans, Peruvians, Argentineans and Bolivians. The foreign minister�s presentation draws a loud applause from the Bolivian audience, and he gives his assurance that "we�re not going to let anybody steal our country away from us. Nobody, at any time." (NYT 9/23/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 24, 1967: Che and his men arrive, exhausted and sick, at Loma Larga, a ranch close to Alto Seco. All but one of the peasants flee upon their arrival. (Harris, 123)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 26, 1967: The guerrillas move to the village of La Higuera and immediately notice that all the men are gone. The villagers have previously been warned that the guerrillas are in the area and they should send any information on them to Vallegrande. The remaining villagers tell the guerrillas that most of the people are at a celebration in a neighboring town called Jahue. (Harris, 123)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 p.m.: As they are about to depart for Jahue, the rebels hear shots coming from the road and are forced to stay in the village and defend themselves. Three guerrillas are killed in the gun battle: Roberto (Coco) Peredo, a Bolivian guerrilla leader who was one of Che�s most important men; "Antonio," believed to be Cuban; and "Julio," likely a Bolivian. Che orders his men to evacuate the village along a road leading to Rio Grande. The army high command and the Barriento government consider this encounter a significant victory. Indeed, Che notes in his diary that La Higuera has caused great losses for him in respect to his rebel cell. (Harris 123,124; NYT 9/28/67))</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIA agent, Félix Rodríguez, under the alias, "Captain Ramos," urges Colonel Zenteno to move his Rangers battalion from La Esperanza headquarters to Vallegrande. The death of Antonio, the vanguard commander [also called Miguel by Rodríguez], prompts Rodríguez to conclude that Che must be close by. Colonel Zenteno argues that the battalion has not yet finished their training, but he will move them as soon as this training is complete. Convinced that he knows Che�s next move, Rodríguez continues pressuring Zenteno to order the 2nd Ranger battalion into combat. (Rodríguez:1, 184)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 26-27, 1967: After the battle of La Higueras, the Ranger Battalion sets up a screening force along the river San Antonio to prevent exfiltration of the guerrilla force. During the mission, the troops captures a guerrilla known as "Gamba." He appears to be in poor health and is poorly clothed. This produces an immediate morale effect on the troops because they notice that the guerrillas are not as strong as they thought. "Gamba" says that he had separated from the group and was traveling in hope of contacting "Ramón" (Guevara). (Dept. of Defense Intelligence Information Report - 11/28/67).</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 29, 1967: Colonel Zenteno is finally persuaded by Rodríguez, and he moves the 2nd Ranger battalion to Vallegrande. Rodríguez joins these six hundred and fifty men who have been trained by U.S. Special Forces Major "Pappy" Shelton. (Rodríguez:1, 184)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SEPTEMBER 30, 1967: Che and his group are trapped by the army in a jungle canyon in Valle Serrano, south of the Grande River. (NYT 10/1/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 7, 1967: The last entry in Che�s diary is recorded exactly eleven months since the inauguration of the guerrilla movement. The guerrillas run into an old woman herding goats. They ask her if there are soldiers in the area but are unable to get any reliable information. Scared that she will report them, they pay her 50 pesos to keep quiet. In Che�s diary it is noted that he has "little hope" that she will do so. (Harris, 126; CIA Weekly Review, "The Che Guevara Diary," 12/15/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Evening: Che and his men stop to rest in a ravine in Quebrada del Yuro. (Harris, 126)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 8, 1967: The troops receive information that there is a band of 17 guerrillas in the Churro Ravine. They enter the area and encounters a group of 6 to 8 guerrillas, opens fire, and killed two Cubans, "Antonio" and "Orturo." "Ramon" (Guevara) and "Willy" try to break out in the direction of the mortar section, where Guevara is wounded in the lower calf. (Dept. of Defense Intelligence Information Report - 11/28/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 8, 1967: A peasant women alerts the army that she heard voices along the banks of the Yuro close to the spot where it runs along the San Antonio river. It is unknown whether it is the same peasant woman that the guerrillas ran into previously. (Rojo 218)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By morning, several companies of Bolivian Rangers are deployed through the area that Guevara�s Guerrillas are in. They take up positions in the same ravine as the guerrillas in Quebrada del Yuro. (Harris,126)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">About 12 p.m.: A unit from General Prado�s company, all recent graduates of the U.S. Army Special Forces training camp, confronts the guerrillas, killing two soldiers and wounding many others. (Harris, 127)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1:30 p.m.: Che�s final battle commences in Quebrada del Yuro. Simon Cuba (Willy) Sarabia, a Bolivian miner, leads the rebel group. Che is behind him and is shot in the leg several times. Sarabia picks up Che and tries to carry him away from the line of fire. The firing starts again and Che�s beret is knocked off. Sarabia sits Che on the ground so he can return the fire. Encircled at less than ten yards distance, the Rangers concentrate their fire on him, riddling him with bullets. Che attempts to keep firing, but cannot keep his gun up with only one arm. He is hit again on his right leg, his gun is knocked out of his hand and his right forearm is pierced. As soldiers approach Che he shouts, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead." The battle ends at approximately 3:30 p.m. Che is taken prisoner. (Rojo, 219; James, 14)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other sources claim that Sarabia is captured alive and at about 4 p.m. he and Che are brought before Captain Prado. Captain Prado orders his radio operator to signal the divisional headquarters in Vallegrande informing them that Che is captured. The coded message sent is "Hello Saturno, we have Papá !" Saturno is the code for Colonel Joaquin Zenteno, commandant of the Eighth Bolivian Army Division, and Papá is code for Che. In disbelief, Colonel Zenteno asks Capt. Prado to confirm the message. With confirmation, "general euphoria" erupts among the divisional headquarters staff. Colonel Zenteno radios Capt. Prado and tells him to immediately transfer Che and any other prisoners to La Higuera. (Harris, 127)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Vallegrande, Félix Rodríguez receives the message over the radio: "Papá cansado," which means "Dad is tired." Papá is the code for foreigner, implying Che. Tired signifies captured or wounded. (Rodr�guez:1, 185)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stretched out on a blanket, Che is carried by four soldiers to La Higuera, seven kilometers away. Sarabia is forced to walk behind with his hands tied against his back. Just after dark the group arrives in La Higuera and both Che and Sarabia are put into the one-room schoolhouse. Later that night, five more guerrillas are brought in. (Harris, 127)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Official army dispatches falsely report that Che is killed in the clash in southeastern Bolivia, and other official reports confirm the killing of Che and state that the Bolivian army has his body. However, the army high command does not confirm this report. (NYT 10/10/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 9, 1967: Walt Rostow sends a memorandum to the President with tentative information that the Bolivians have captured Che Guevara. The Bolivian unit engaged in the operation was the one that had been trained by the U.S. (Rostow 10/9/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 9, 1967: 6:15 a.m.: Félix Rodríguez arrives by helicopter in La Higuera, along with Colonel Joaquín Zenteno Anaya. Rodríguez brings a powerful portable field radio and a camera with a special four-footed stand used to photograph documents. He quietly observes the scene in the schoolhouse, and records what he sees, finding the situation "gruesome" with Che lying in dirt, his arms tied behind his back and his feet bound together, next to the bodies of his friends. He looks "like a piece of trash" with matted hair, torn clothes, and wearing only pieces of leather on his feet for shoes. In one interview, Rodríguez states that, " I had mixed emotions when I first arrived there. Here was the man who had assassinated many of my countrymen. And nevertheless, when I saw him, the way he looked....I felt really sorry for him." (Rodríguez:2)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez sets up his radio and transmits a coded message to the CIA station in either Peru or Brazil to be retransmitted to Langley headquarters. Rodríguez also starts to photograph Che�s diary and other captured documents. Later, Rodríguez spends time talking with Che and takes a picture with him. The photos that Rodríguez takes are preserved by the CIA. (Anderson, 793; Rodríguez:1, 193)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">10 am: The Bolivian officers are faced with the question of what to do with Che. The possibility of prosecuting him is ruled out because a trial would focus world attention on him and could generate sympathetic propaganda for Che and for Cuba. It is concluded that Che must be executed immediately, but it is agreed upon that the official story will be that he died from wounds received in battle. Félix Rodríguez receives a call from Vallegrande and is ordered by the Superior Command to conduct Operation Five Hundred and Six Hundred. Five hundred is the Bolivian code for Che and six hundred is the order to kill him. Rodríguez informs Colonel Zenteno of the order, but also tells him that the U.S. government has instructed him to keep Che alive at all costs. The CIA and the U.S. government have arranged helicopters and airplanes to take Che to Panama for interrogation. However, Colonel Zenteno says he must obey his own orders and Rodríguez decides, "to let history take its course," and to leave the matter in the hands of the Bolivians. (Anderson, 795; Harris 128, 129; Rodríguez:1, 193; Rodríguez:2)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez realizes that he cannot stall any longer when a school teacher informs him that she has heard a news report on Che�s death on her radio. Rodríguez enters the schoolhouse to tell Che of the orders from the Bolivian high command. Che understands and says, "It is better like this ... I never should have been captured alive." Che gives Rodríguez a message for his wife and for Fidel, they embrace and Rodríguez leaves the room. (Rodríguez:2; Anderson, 796)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to one source, the top ranking officers in La Higuera instruct the noncommissioned officers to carry out the order and straws are drawn to determine who will execute Che. Just before noon, having drawn the shortest straw, Sergeant Jaime Terán goes to the schoolhouse to execute Che. Terán finds Che propped up against the wall and Che asks him to wait a moment until he stands up. Terán is frightened, runs away and is ordered back by Colonel Selich and Colonel Zenteno. "Still trembling" he returns to the schoolhouse and without looking at Che�s face he fires into his chest and side. Several soldiers, also wanting to shoot Che, enter the room and shoot him. (Harris, 129)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Félix Rodríguez has stated that, "I told the Sargento to shoot....and I understand that he borrowed an M-2 carbine from a Lt. Pérez who was in the area." Rodríguez places the time of the shooting at 1:10 p.m. Bolivian time. (Rodríguez:2)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Jon Lee Anderson�s account, Sergeant Terán volunteers to shoot Che. Che's last words, which are addressed to Terán, are "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, you are only going to kill a man." Terán shoots Che in the arms and legs and then in Che's thorax, filling his lungs with blood. (Anderson, 796)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 9, 1967: Early in the morning, the unit receives the order to execute Guevara and the other prisoners. Lt. Pérez asks Guevara if he wishes anything before his execution. Guevara replies that he only wishes to "die with a full stomach." Pérez asks him if he is a "materialist" and Guevara answers only "perhaps." When Sgt. Terán (the executioner) enters the room, Guevara stands up with his hands tied and states, "I know what you have come for I am ready." Terán tells him to be seated and leaves the room for a few moments. While Terán was outside, Sgt. Huacka enters another small house, where "Willy" was being held, and shoots him. When Terán comes back, Guevara stands up and refuses to be seated saying: "I will remain standing for this." Terán gets angry and tells Guevara to be seated again. Finally, Guevara tells him: "Know this now, you are killing a man." Terán fires his M2 Carbine and kills him. (Dept. of Defense Intelligence Information Report - 11/28/67).</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later that afternoon: Senior army officers and CIA Agent, Félix Rodríguez, leave La Higuera by helicopter for army headquarters in Vallegrande. Upon landing, Rodríguez quickly leaves the helicopter knowing that Castro�s people will be there looking for CIA agents. Pulling a Bolivian army cap over his face, he is not noticed by anyone. (Rodríguez:1, 12; Harris, 130)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Che�s body is flown to Vallegrande by helicopter and later fingerprinted and embalmed. (NYT 10/11/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">General Ovando, Chief of Bolivian Armed Forces, states that just before he died, Che said, "I am Che Guevara and I have failed." (James, 8)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 10, 1967: W.G. Bowdler sends a note to Walt Rostow saying that they do not know if Che Guevara was "among the casualties of the October 8 engagement." They think that there are no guerrilla survivors. By October 9, they thought two guerrilla were wounded and possibly one of them is Che. (Bowdler, The White House 10/10/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 10, 1967: Two doctors,. Moisés Abraham Baptista and José Martínez Cazo, at the Hospital Knights of Malta, Vallegrande, Bolivia, sign a death certificate for Che Guevara. The document states that "on October 9 at 5:30 p.m., there arrived...Ernesto Guevara Lynch, approximately 40 years of age, the cause of death being multiple bullet wounds in the thorax and extremities. Preservative was applied to the body." On the same day, and autopsy report records the multiple bullets wounds found in Guevara�s body. "The cause of death," states the autopsy report, "was the thorax wounds and consequent hemorrhaging." (U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, Airgram, 10/18/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 10, 1967: General Ovando announces that Che died the day before at 1:30 p.m. This means that Che lived for twenty-two hours after the battle in Quebrada del Yuro, which contradicts Colonel Zenteno�s story. Colonel Zenteno changes his story to support General Ovando�s. (James, 15)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The New York Times reports that the Bolivian Army High Command dispatches officially confirm that Che was killed in the battle on Sunday October 8th. General Ovando states that Che admitted his identity and the failure of his guerrilla campaign before dying of his wounds. (NYT 10/10/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ernesto Guevara, the father of Che, denies the death of his son, stating that there is no evidence to prove the killing. (NYT 10/11/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 11, 1967: General Ovando claims that on this day Che�s body is buried in the Vallegrande area. (James, 19)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 11, 1967: President Lyndon Johnson receives a memorandum from Walt W. Rostow: "This morning we are about 99% sure that "Che" Guevara is dead." The memo informs the President that according to the CIA, Che was taken alive and after a short interrogation General Ovando ordered his execution. (Rostow, "Death of Che Guevara," 10/11/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 11, 1967: Walt Rostow sends a memorandum to the President stating that they "are 99% sure that �Che� Guevara is dead." He explains that Guevara�s death carries significant implications: "It marks the passing of another of the aggressive, romantic revolutionaries...In the Latin American context, it will have a strong impact in discouraging would -be guerrillas. It shows the soundness of our �preventive medicine� assistance to countries facing incipient insurgency--it was the Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion, trained by our Green Berets from June-September of this year, that cornered him and got him." (Rostow 10/11/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 12, 1967: Che�s brother, Roberto, arrives in Bolivia to take the body back to Argentina. However, General Ovando tells him that the body has been cremated. (Anderson, 799)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 13, 1967: Walt Rostow sends a note to the President with intelligence information that "removes any doubt that �Che" Guevara is dead." (Rostow 10/13/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 14, 1967: Annex No.3 - three officials of the Argentine Federal police, at the request of the Bolivian Government, visited Bolivian military headquarters in La Paz to help identify the handwriting and fingerprints of Che Guevara. "They were shown a metal container in which were two amputated hands in a liquid solution, apparently formaldehyde." The experts compared the fingerprints with the ones in Guevara�s Argentine identity record, No. 3.524.272, and they were the same. (U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, Airgram, 10/18/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 14, 1967: Students at Central University of Venezuela protest the U.S. involvement in Che�s death. Demonstrations are organized against a U.S. business, the home of a U.S. citizen, the U.S. Embassy and other similar targets.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 15, 1967: Bolivian President Barrientos claims that Che�s ashes are buried in a hidden place somewhere in the Vallegrande region. (Harris, 130)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 16, 1967: . The Bolivian Armed Forces released a communiqué together with three annexes on the death of Che Guevara. The communiqué is "based on documents released by the Military High Command on October9...concerning the combat that took place at La Higuera between units of the Armed Forces and the red group commanded by Ernesto �Che� Guevara, as a result of which he, among others, lost his life..." The report states that Guevara died "more or less at 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 8...as a result of his wounds." Also, in order to identify his body it requested the cooperation of Argentine technical organizations to identify the remains to certify that the handwriting of the campaign diary coincides with Guevara�s. Henderson, the U.S. Embassy agent in La Paz, comments that "it will be widely noted that neither the death certificate nor the autopsy report state a time of death." This "would appear to be an attempt to bridge the difference between a series of earlier divergent statements from Armed Forces sources, ranging from assertions that he died during or shortly after battle to those suggesting he survived at least twenty-four hours." He also notes that some early reports indicate that Guevara was captured with minor injuries, while later statements , including the autopsy report, affirm that he suffered multiple wounds. He agrees with a comment by Preséncia, that these statements are "going to be the new focus of polemics in the coming days." (U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, Airgram, 10/18/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 18, 1967: The U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia sends an airgram to the Department of State with the Official Confirmation of Death of Che Guevara. (U.S. Embassy, La Paz, Bolivia, 10/18/97)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 18, 1967: A CIA cable highlights the errors leading to Guevara�s defeat. "There were negative factors and tremendous errors involved in the death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara Serna and the defeat of the guerrillas in Bolivia... ." Che�s presence at the guerrilla front in Bolivia, " ... precluded all hope of saving him and the other leaders in the event of an ambush and virtually condemned them to die or exist uselessly as fugitives." The fact that the guerrillas were so dependent on the local peasant population also proved to be a mistake according to the CIA. Another error described in this cable is Che�s over-confidence in the Bolivian Communist Party, which was relatively new, inexperienced, lacking strong leadership and was internally divided into Trotskyite and Pro-Chinese factions. Finally, the cable states that the victory of the Bolivian army should not be credited to their actions, but to the errors of Castroism. " The guerrilla failure in Bolivia is definitely a leadership failure..."("Comments on the death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara Serna," 10/18/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 18, 1967: Fidel Castro delivers a eulogy for Che Guevara to nearly a million people --one of his largest audiences ever--in Havana�s Plaza de la Revolución. Castro proclaims that Che�s life-long struggle against imperialism and his ideals will be the inspiration for future generations of revolutionaries. His life was a "glorious page of history" because of his extraordinary military accomplishments, and his unequaled combination of virtues which made him an "artist in guerrilla warfare." Castro professes that Che�s murderers� will be disappointed when they realize that "the art to which he dedicated his life and intelligence cannot die." (Anderson, 798; Castro�s Eulogy, 10/18/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 19, 1967: Intelligence and Research�s Cuba specialist, Thomas L. Hughes, writes a memorandum to Secretary of State, Dean Rusk. Hughes outlines two significant outcomes of Che Guevara�s death that will affect Fidel Castro�s future political strategies. One is that "Guevara will be eulogized as the model revolutionary who met a heroic death," particularly among future generations of Latin American youth. Castro can utilize this to continue justifying his defiance of the usual suspects--"US imperialism, the Green Berets, the CIA." Another outcome is that Castro will reassess his expectations of exporting revolutions to other Latin American countries. Some Latin American leftists "will be able to argue that any insurgency must be indigenous and that only local parties know when local conditions are right for revolution." (Intelligence and Research Memorandum, "Guevara�s Death--The Meaning for Latin America", 10/19/97)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">NOVEMBER 8, 1967: The CIA reports that Cuba is threatening assassin a prominent Bolivian figure, such as President Barrientos or General Ovando, in revenge of Che Guevara�s death. ( CIA cable, 11/8/67)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">JULY 1, 1995: In an interview with biographer Jon Lee Anderson, Bolivian General Mario Vargas Salinas reveals that "he had been a part of a nocturnal burial detail, that Che�s body and those of several of his comrades were buried in a mass grave near the dirt airstrip outside the little mountain town of Vallegrande in Central Bolivia." A subsequent Anderson article in the New York Times sets off a two-year search to find and identify Guevara�s remains. (Anderson,1)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">JULY 5, 1997: Che Guevara biographer, Jon Lee Anderson, reports for the New York Times that although the remains have not been exhumed and definitely identified, two experts are "100 percent sure" that they have discovered Che�s remains in Vallegrande. The fact that one of the skeletons is missing both of its hands is cited as the most compelling evidence. (NYT 7/5/97)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">JULY 13, 1997: A ceremony in Havana, attended by Fidel Castro and other Cuban officials, marks the return of Che�s remains to Cuba. (NYT 7/14/97)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OCTOBER 17, 1997: In a ceremony attended by Castro and thousands of Cubans, Che Guevara is reburied in Santa Clara, Cuba. (NYT, 10/18/97)</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">LIST OF SOURCES</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anderson=Anderson, Jon Lee, Che Guevara : A Revolutionary Life, Grove Press, 1997.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Harris= Harris, Richard, Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara's Last Mission, W.W. Norton and Company Inc.,1970.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James= James, Daniel, Che Guevara: A Biography, Stein and Day, 1970</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">National Security Files, "Bolivia, Vol. 4" Box 8.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">NYT=New York Times</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rodr�guez:1=Rodr�guez, F�lix I.,Shadow Warrior, Simon and Schuster Inc., 1989</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rodr�guez:2=Rodr�guez, F�lix . BBC documentary, "Executive Action," 1992.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rojo= Rojo, Ricardo, My Friend Che, The Dial Press, Inc., 1968</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">WT= Washington Times</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-59423374184242241772010-08-02T11:51:00.000-07:002010-08-08T14:12:59.332-07:00CHE GUEVARA FAN CLUB<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 10" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 10" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your comment will be published in a book about Che Guevara</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Best comment will receive a free book</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kzLr27jT0_4/TFcTjilAa5I/AAAAAAAAAAk/n3XqPKj_v1o/s1600/GuerrilleroHeroico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kzLr27jT0_4/TFcTjilAa5I/AAAAAAAAAAk/n3XqPKj_v1o/s320/GuerrilleroHeroico.jpg" /></a></div><b>"Che was the most complete human being of our age."<br />
Jean-Paul Sartre </b><br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201192812206467949.post-25925087486059299412010-08-02T11:43:00.000-07:002010-08-02T13:14:33.718-07:00THE LIFE OF CHE GUEVARA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kzLr27jT0_4/TFcKftnjKWI/AAAAAAAAAAU/ziHd_5EzZZI/s1600/GuerrilleroHeroico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kzLr27jT0_4/TFcKftnjKWI/AAAAAAAAAAU/ziHd_5EzZZI/s320/GuerrilleroHeroico.jpg" /></a></div><div style="color: black;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black;"><b>LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT CHE GUEVARA</b><br />
</div><table class="toc" id="toc" style="color: black;"><tbody>
<tr> <td><b>Ernesto</b> "<b>Che</b>" <b>Guevara</b> (<small>Spanish pronunciation: </small><span class="IPA" title="Pronunciation in IPA"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Spanish" title="Wikipedia:IPA for Spanish">[ˈtʃe geˈβaɾa]</a></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a></sup>; June 14,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-birthdate_0-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-birthdate-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as <b>El Che</b> or simply <b>Che</b>, was an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina">Argentine</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism" title="Marxism">Marxist</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary" title="Revolutionary">revolutionary</a>, physician, author, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual" title="Intellectual">intellectual</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla" title="Guerrilla">guerrilla</a> leader, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomat" title="Diplomat">diplomat</a>, military theorist, and major figure of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution" title="Cuban Revolution">Cuban Revolution</a>. Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture" title="Counterculture">countercultural</a> symbol and global insignia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_in_popular_culture" title="Che Guevara in popular culture">within popular culture</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As a young <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_student" title="Medical student">medical student</a>, Guevara traveled throughout <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America" title="Latin America">Latin America</a> and was transformed by the endemic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty" title="Poverty">poverty</a> he witnessed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RevMedicine_5-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-RevMedicine-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup> His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality" title="Economic inequality">economic inequalities</a> were an intrinsic result of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_monopoly_capitalism" title="State monopoly capitalism">monopoly capitalism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolonialism" title="Neocolonialism">neocolonialism</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism" title="Imperialism">imperialism</a>, with the only remedy being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_revolution" title="World revolution">world revolution</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AfroAsian1965_6-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-AfroAsian1965-6"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a></sup> This belief prompted his involvement in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala" title="Guatemala">Guatemala</a>'s social reforms under President <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n" title="Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán">Jacobo Arbenz</a>, whose eventual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1954 Guatemalan coup d'état">CIA-assisted overthrow</a> solidified Guevara's radical ideology. Later, while living in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City" title="Mexico City">Mexico City</a>, he met <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Castro" title="Raúl Castro">Raúl</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a>, joined their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_of_July_Movement" title="26th of July Movement">26th of July Movement</a>, and travelled to Cuba aboard the yacht, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granma_%28yacht%29" title="Granma (yacht)">Granma</a></i>, with the intention of overthrowing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">U.S.</a>-backed Cuban <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator" title="Dictator">dictator</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista" title="Fulgencio Batista">Fulgencio Batista</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-7"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara soon rose to prominence among the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency" title="Insurgency">insurgents</a>, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the successful two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castrosbrain1960_8-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castrosbrain1960-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad" title="Execution by firing squad">firing squads</a> for those convicted as <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_criminal" title="War criminal">war criminals</a> during the revolutionary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribunal" title="Tribunal">tribunals</a>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_9-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceA-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> instituting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Reform_Laws_of_Cuba#First_agrarian_reform_law_under_Che_Guevara" title="Agrarian Reform Laws of Cuba">agrarian reform</a> as minister of industries, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba%E2%80%99s_armed_forces" title="Cuba’s armed forces">Cuba’s armed forces</a>, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">socialism</a>. Such positions allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion" title="Bay of Pigs Invasion">Bay of Pigs Invasion</a><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg69_10-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg69-10"><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup> and bringing to Cuba the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon" title="Nuclear weapon">nuclear-armed</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_missile" title="Ballistic missile">ballistic missiles</a> which precipitated the 1962 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis" title="Cuban Missile Crisis">Cuban Missile Crisis</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-11"><span>[</span>12<span>]</span></a></sup> Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Warfare_%28book%29" title="Guerrilla Warfare (book)">manual</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare" title="Guerrilla warfare">guerrilla warfare</a>, along with a best-selling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir" title="Memoir">memoir</a> about his <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries" title="The Motorcycle Diaries">youthful motorcycle journey</a> across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions, first unsuccessfully in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo-Kinshasa" title="Congo-Kinshasa">Congo-Kinshasa</a> and later in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia" title="Bolivia">Bolivia</a>, where he was captured by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="Central Intelligence Agency">CIA</a>-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-12"><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additional_materials_on_Che_Guevara" title="Additional materials on Che Guevara">a multitude</a> of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_%28magazine%29" title="Time (magazine)">Time</a></i> magazine named him one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_100:_The_Most_Important_People_of_the_Century" title="Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century">100 most influential</a> people of the 20th century,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-13"><span>[</span>14<span>]</span></a></sup> while an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Korda" title="Alberto Korda">Alberto Korda</a> photograph of him entitled <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_%28photo%29" title="Che Guevara (photo)">Guerrillero Heroico</a></i> (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-14"><span>[</span>15<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
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</script> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life">Early life</span></h2><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 232px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chefamily.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="114" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Chefamily.jpg/230px-Chefamily.jpg" width="230" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chefamily.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A teenage Ernesto (left) with his parents and siblings, ca. 1944. Seated beside him, from left to right: Celia (mother), Celia (sister), Roberto, Juan Martín, Ernesto (father) and Ana María.</div></div></div>Ernesto Guevara was born to Celia de la Serna y Llosa and Ernesto Guevara <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynch_%28surname%29" title="Lynch (surname)">Lynch</a> on June 14, 1928<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-birthdate_0-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-birthdate-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosario" title="Rosario">Rosario</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina">Argentina</a>, the eldest of five children in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Argentine" title="White Argentine">white Argentine</a> family of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Argentine" title="Spanish Argentine">Spanish</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_Argentine" title="Basque Argentine">Basque</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Argentine" title="Irish Argentine">Irish</a> descent.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-15"><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></a></sup> In lieu of his parents' surnames, his legal name (Ernesto Guevara) will sometimes appear with de la Serna, or Lynch accompanying it. In reference to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798" title="Irish Rebellion of 1798">Irish rebels</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup> Very early on in life Ernestito (as he was then called) developed an "affinity for the poor."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-17"><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></a></sup> Growing up in a family with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics" title="Left-wing politics">leftist</a> leanings, Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-18"><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></a></sup> His father, a staunch supporter of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Spanish_Republic" title="Second Spanish Republic">Republicans</a> from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War" title="Spanish Civil War">Spanish Civil War</a>, often hosted many veterans from the conflict in the Guevara home.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-19"><span>[</span>20<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Though suffering crippling bouts of acute <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma" title="Asthma">asthma</a> that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, soccer, golf, and shooting; while also becoming an "untiring" cyclist.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-20"><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-21"><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></a></sup> He was an avid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union" title="Rugby union">rugby union</a> player, and played at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union_positions#10._Fly-half" title="Rugby union positions">fly-half</a> for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Buenos_Aires" title="University of Buenos Aires">University of Buenos Aires</a> First XV.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-22"><span>[</span>23<span>]</span></a></sup> His rugby playing earned him the nickname "Fuser"—a contraction of <i>El Furibundo</i> (raging) and his mother's surname, de la Serna—for his aggressive style of play.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-23"><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></a></sup> His schoolmates also nicknamed him <i>"Chancho"</i> ("pig"), because he rarely bathed, and proudly wore a "weekly shirt."<br />
Guevara learned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess" title="Chess">chess</a> from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda" title="Pablo Neruda">Pablo Neruda</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats" title="John Keats">John Keats</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Machado" title="Antonio Machado">Antonio Machado</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca" title="Federico García Lorca">Federico García Lorca</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Mistral" title="Gabriela Mistral">Gabriela Mistral</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Vallejo" title="César Vallejo">César Vallejo</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Walt Whitman</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hart_2004.2C_pg_98_24-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Hart_2004.2C_pg_98-24"><span>[</span>25<span>]</span></a></sup> He could also recite <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling" title="Rudyard Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a>'s <i>"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94" title="If—">If—</a>"</i> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Hern%C3%A1ndez_%28writer%29" title="José Hernández (writer)">José Hernández</a>'s <i>"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Fierro" title="Martín Fierro">Martín Fierro</a>"</i> from memory.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hart_2004.2C_pg_98_24-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Hart_2004.2C_pg_98-24"><span>[</span>25<span>]</span></a></sup> The Guevara home contained more than 3,000 books, which allowed Guevara to be an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner" title="William Faulkner">William Faulkner</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Gide" title="André Gide">André Gide</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari" title="Emilio Salgari">Emilio Salgari</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne" title="Jules Verne">Jules Verne</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-25"><span>[</span>26<span>]</span></a></sup> Additionally, he enjoyed the works of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru" title="Jawaharlal Nehru">Jawaharlal Nehru</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka" title="Franz Kafka">Franz Kafka</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus" title="Albert Camus">Albert Camus</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin" title="Vladimir Lenin">Vladimir Lenin</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre" title="Jean-Paul Sartre">Jean-Paul Sartre</a>; as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_France" title="Anatole France">Anatole France</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels" title="Friedrich Engels">Friedrich Engels</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.G._Wells" title="H.G. Wells">H.G. Wells</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost" title="Robert Frost">Robert Frost</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceC_26-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceC-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 152px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheG1951.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="205" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/CheG1951.jpg/150px-CheG1951.jpg" width="150" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheG1951.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A 22-year-old Guevara in 1951</div></div></div>As he grew older, he developed an interest in the Latin American writers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacio_Quiroga" title="Horacio Quiroga">Horacio Quiroga</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciro_Alegr%C3%ADa" title="Ciro Alegría">Ciro Alegría</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Icaza" title="Jorge Icaza">Jorge Icaza</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A9n_Dar%C3%ADo" title="Rubén Darío">Rubén Darío</a>, and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Asturias" title="Miguel Asturias">Miguel Asturias</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceC_26-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceC-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup> Many of these authors' ideas he cataloged in his own handwritten notebooks of concepts, definitions, and philosophies of influential intellectuals. These included composing analytical sketches of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha" title="Gautama Buddha">Buddha</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle" title="Aristotle">Aristotle</a>, along with examining <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a> on love and patriotism, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London" title="Jack London">Jack London</a> on society, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" title="Friedrich Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a> on the idea of death. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud" title="Sigmund Freud">Sigmund Freud</a>'s ideas fascinated him as he quoted him on a variety of topics from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_interpretation" title="Dream interpretation">dreams</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido" title="Libido">libido</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism" title="Narcissism">narcissism</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex" title="Oedipus complex">oedipus complex</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceC_26-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceC-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup> His favorite subjects in school included <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophy</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics">mathematics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering" title="Engineering">engineering</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science" title="Political science">political science</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology" title="Sociology">sociology</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History" title="History">history</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology" title="Archaeology">archaeology</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-27"><span>[</span>28<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-28"><span>[</span>29<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Years later, a February 13, 1958, declassified CIA 'biographical and personality report' would make note of Guevara’s wide range of academic interests and intellect, describing him as "quite well read" while adding that "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-29"><span>[</span>30<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Motorcycle_journey">Motorcycle journey</span></h3><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main articles: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_%28book%29" title="The Motorcycle Diaries (book)">The Motorcycle Diaries (book)</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_%28film%29" title="The Motorcycle Diaries (film)">The Motorcycle Diaries (film)</a></div>In 1948, Guevara entered the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Buenos_Aires" title="University of Buenos Aires">University of Buenos Aires</a> to study medicine. However, his "hunger to explore the world"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-30"><span>[</span>31<span>]</span></a></sup> led him to intersperse his collegiate pursuits with two long introspective journeys that would fundamentally change the way he viewed himself and the present economic conditions in Latin America. The first expedition in 1950 was a 4,500 kilometer (2,800 mi) solo trip through the rural provinces of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Northwest" title="Argentine Northwest">northern Argentina</a> on a bicycle on which he installed a small motor.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-31"><span>[</span>32<span>]</span></a></sup> This was followed in 1951 by a nine month 8,000 kilometer (5,000 mi) continental motorcycle trek through most of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America" title="South America">South America</a>. For the latter, he took a year off from studies to embark with his friend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Granado" title="Alberto Granado">Alberto Granado</a>, with the final goal of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leper_colony" title="Leper colony">Leper colony</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru">Peru</a>, on the banks of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River" title="Amazon River">Amazon River</a>.<br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 152px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara-Granado_-_Mapa_1er_viaje_-_1952.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="211" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Che_Guevara-Granado_-_Mapa_1er_viaje_-_1952.jpg/150px-Che_Guevara-Granado_-_Mapa_1er_viaje_-_1952.jpg" width="150" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara-Granado_-_Mapa_1er_viaje_-_1952.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A map of Guevara's 1952 trip with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Granado" title="Alberto Granado">Alberto Granado</a>. The red arrows correspond to air travel.</div></div></div><div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 212px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheOnRaft1952.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="143" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/CheOnRaft1952.jpg/210px-CheOnRaft1952.jpg" width="210" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheOnRaft1952.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara (right) with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Granado" title="Alberto Granado">Alberto Granado</a> (left) aboard their "Mambo-Tango" wooden raft on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River" title="Amazon River">Amazon River</a> in June of 1952. The raft was a gift from the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepers" title="Lepers">lepers</a> whom they had treated.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-32"><span>[</span>33<span>]</span></a></sup></div></div></div>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile" title="Chile">Chile</a>, Guevara found himself enraged by the working conditions of the miners in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Copper" title="Anaconda Copper">Anaconda</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuquicamata" title="Chuquicamata">Chuquicamata</a> copper mine; and moved by his overnight encounter in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert" title="Atacama Desert">Atacama Desert</a> with a persecuted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Chile" title="Communist Party of Chile">Communist</a> couple who didn't even own a blanket, describing them as "the shivering flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-33"><span>[</span>34<span>]</span></a></sup> Additionally, on the way to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu" title="Machu Picchu">Machu Picchu</a> high in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes" title="Andes">Andes</a>, he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg27_34-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg27-34"><span>[</span>35<span>]</span></a></sup> Later on his journey, Guevara was especially impressed by the camaraderie among those living in a Leper Colony, stating "The highest forms of human solidarity and loyalty arise among such lonely and desperate people."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg27_34-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg27-34"><span>[</span>35<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara used notes taken during this trip to write an account entitled <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries" title="The Motorcycle Diaries">The Motorcycle Diaries</a></i>, which later became a <i>New York Times</i> best-seller,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-35"><span>[</span>36<span>]</span></a></sup> and was adapted into a 2004 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_%28film%29#Awards" title="The Motorcycle Diaries (film)">award-winning</a> film of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_%28film%29" title="The Motorcycle Diaries (film)">same name</a>.<br />
In total, the journey took Guevara through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina">Argentina</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile" title="Chile">Chile</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru">Peru</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador">Ecuador</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia" title="Colombia">Colombia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela" title="Venezuela">Venezuela</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama" title="Panama">Panama</a>, and to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami" title="Miami">Miami</a>, before returning home to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires" title="Buenos Aires">Buenos Aires</a>. By trip's end, he came to view Latin America not as collection of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a borderless, united <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_America" title="Hispanic America">Hispanic America</a> sharing a common '<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latino" title="Latino">Latino</a>' heritage was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he completed his studies and received his medical degree in June 1953, making him officially "Dr. Ernesto Guevara."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-36"><span>[</span>37<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-37"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-37"><span>[</span>38<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara later remarked that through his travels of Latin America, he came in "close contact with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty" title="Poverty">poverty</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger" title="Hunger">hunger</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease" title="Disease">disease</a>" along with the "inability to treat a child because of lack of money" and "stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment" that leads a father to "accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident." It was these experiences which Guevara cites as convincing him that in order to "help these people", he needed to leave the realm of medicine, and consider the political arena of armed struggle.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RevMedicine_5-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-RevMedicine-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Guatemala.2C_Arbenz_and_United_Fruit">Guatemala, Arbenz and United Fruit</span></h2><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="1954 Guatemalan coup d'état">1954 Guatemalan coup d'état</a></div><div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 152px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_-_2do_Viaje_-_1953-55.png"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="203" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Che_Guevara_-_2do_Viaje_-_1953-55.png/150px-Che_Guevara_-_2do_Viaje_-_1953-55.png" width="150" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_-_2do_Viaje_-_1953-55.png" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A map of Che Guevara's travels between 1953 and 1956, including his journey aboard the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granma_%28yacht%29" title="Granma (yacht)"><i>Granma</i></a></div></div></div>On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia" title="Bolivia">Bolivia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru">Peru</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador">Ecuador</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama" title="Panama">Panama</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica" title="Costa Rica">Costa Rica</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua" title="Nicaragua">Nicaragua</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduras" title="Honduras">Honduras</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador" title="El Salvador">El Salvador</a>. On December 10, 1953, before leaving for Guatemala, Guevara sent an update to his Aunt Beatriz from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jos%C3%A9,_Costa_Rica" title="San José, Costa Rica">San José, Costa Rica</a>. In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the "dominions" of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company" title="United Fruit Company">United Fruit Company</a>, which convinced him "how terrible" the "<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist" title="Capitalist">Capitalist</a> octopuses" were.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-38"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-38"><span>[</span>39<span>]</span></a></sup> This affirmed indignation carried the "head hunting tone" that he adopted in order to frighten his more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism" title="Conservatism">Conservative</a> relatives, and ends with Guevara swearing on an image of the then recently deceased <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin" title="Joseph Stalin">Joseph Stalin</a>, not to rest until these "octopuses have been vanquished."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-39"><span>[</span>40<span>]</span></a></sup> Later that month, Guevara arrived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala" title="Guatemala">Guatemala</a> where President <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n" title="Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán">Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán</a> headed a democratically elected government that, through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform" title="Land reform">land reform</a> and other initiatives, was attempting to end the <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latifundia" title="Latifundia">latifundia</a></i> system. To accomplish this, President Arbenz had enacted a major land reform program, where all uncultivated portions of large land holdings were to be expropriated and redistributed to landless peasants. The biggest land owner, and one most affected by the reforms, was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company" title="United Fruit Company">United Fruit Company</a>, from which the Arbenz government had already taken more than 225,000 uncultivated acres.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-40"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-40"><span>[</span>41<span>]</span></a></sup> Pleased with the road the nation was heading down, Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to "perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg31_41-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg31-41"><span>[</span>42<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_City" title="Guatemala City">Guatemala City</a>, Guevara sought out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Gadea" title="Hilda Gadea">Hilda Gadea Acosta</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru" title="Peru">Peruvian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist" title="Economist">economist</a> who was well-connected politically as a member of the left-leaning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alianza_Popular_Revolucionaria_Americana" title="Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana">Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana</a> (APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance). She introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n#Presidency_and_coup" title="Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán">Arbenz government</a>. Guevara then established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a> through the July 26, 1953 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncada_Barracks#Attack_on_Moncada_Barracks" title="Moncada Barracks">attack</a> on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncada_Barracks" title="Moncada Barracks">Moncada Barracks</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Cuba" title="Santiago de Cuba">Santiago de Cuba</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-42"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-42"><span>[</span>43<span>]</span></a></sup> During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocative" title="Vocative">vocative</a> interjection <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_%28Spanish%29" title="Che (Spanish)">che</a></i>, a slang casual speech filler used similarly to "hey" (as in "hey, could you hand me a towel" and not as a form of salute.)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-43"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-43"><span>[</span>44<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara's attempts to obtain a medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. On May 15, 1954, a shipment of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Works" title="Škoda Works">Škoda</a> infantry and light artillery weapons was sent from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia#Communist_Czechoslovakia" title="Czechoslovakia">Communist Czechoslovakia</a> for the Arbenz Government and arrived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Barrios" title="Puerto Barrios">Puerto Barrios</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-usdepstate_44-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-usdepstate-44"><span>[</span>45<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-45"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-45"><span>[</span>46<span>]</span></a></sup> As a result, the U.S. CIA sponsored an army which invaded the country and installed the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing" title="Right-wing">right-wing</a> dictatorship of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas" title="Carlos Castillo Armas">Carlos Castillo Armas</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg31_41-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg31-41"><span>[</span>42<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia" title="Militia">militia</a> organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. Guevara’s repeated calls to resist were noted by supporters of the coup, and he was marked for murder.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg32_46-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg32-46"><span>[</span>47<span>]</span></a></sup> After Hilda Gadea was arrested, Guevara sought protection inside the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_missions_of_Argentina" title="Diplomatic missions of Argentina">Argentine consulate</a>, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-47"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-47"><span>[</span>48<span>]</span></a></sup> He married Gadea in Mexico in September 1955.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Memoira_48-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Memoira-48"><span>[</span>49<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
The overthrow of the Arbenz regime cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism" title="Imperialism">imperialist</a> power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. In speaking about the coup Guevara stated:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"The last Latin American revolutionary democracy – that of Jacobo Arbenz – failed as a result of the cold premeditated aggression carried out by the U.S.A. Its visible head was the Secretary of State <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Foster_Dulles" title="John Foster Dulles">John Foster Dulles</a>, a man who, through a rare coincidence, was also a stockholder and attorney for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company" title="United Fruit Company">United Fruit Company</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg32_46-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg32-46"><span>[</span>47<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote>Guevara's conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions was thus strengthened.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-49"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-49"><span>[</span>50<span>]</span></a></sup> Gadea wrote later, "It was Guatemala which finally convinced him of the necessity for armed struggle and for taking the initiative against imperialism. By the time he left, he was sure of this."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-50"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-50"><span>[</span>51<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Mexico_City_and_preparation">Mexico City and preparation</span></h2><div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hilda_Gadea_y_Che_Guevara_-_Luna_de_miel_-_Yucat%C3%A1n_1955.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="233" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Hilda_Gadea_y_Che_Guevara_-_Luna_de_miel_-_Yucat%C3%A1n_1955.jpg/220px-Hilda_Gadea_y_Che_Guevara_-_Luna_de_miel_-_Yucat%C3%A1n_1955.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hilda_Gadea_y_Che_Guevara_-_Luna_de_miel_-_Yucat%C3%A1n_1955.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Gadea" title="Hilda Gadea">Hilda Gadea</a> at <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chich%C3%A9n_Itz%C3%A1" title="Chichén Itzá">Chichén Itzá</a> on their honeymoon trip</div></div></div>Guevara arrived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City" title="Mexico City">Mexico City</a> in early September 1954, and worked in the allergy section of the General Hospital. In addition he gave lectures on medicine at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Autonomous_University_of_Mexico" title="National Autonomous University of Mexico">National Autonomous University of Mexico</a> and worked as a news photographer for Latina News Agency.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-51"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-51"><span>[</span>52<span>]</span></a></sup> His first wife Hilda notes in her memoir <i>My Life with Che</i>, that for a while, Guevara considered going to work as a doctor in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa" title="Africa">Africa</a> and that he continued to be deeply troubled by the poverty around him.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RebelWife_52-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-RebelWife-52"><span>[</span>53<span>]</span></a></sup> In one instance, Hilda describes Guevara's obsession with an elderly washerwoman whom he was treating, remarking that he saw her as "representative of the most forgotten and exploited class." Hilda later found a poem that Che had dedicated to the old woman, containing "a promise to fight for a better world, for a better life for all the poor and exploited."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RebelWife_52-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-RebelWife-52"><span>[</span>53<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
During this time he renewed his friendship with Ñico López and the other Cuban exiles whom he had met in Guatemala. In June 1955, López introduced him to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Castro" title="Raúl Castro">Raúl Castro</a> who subsequently introduced him to his older brother, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a>, the revolutionary leader who had formed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_of_July_Movement" title="26th of July Movement">26th of July Movement</a> and was now plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista" title="Fulgencio Batista">Fulgencio Batista</a>. During a long conversation with Fidel on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak he had signed up as a member of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_26_Movement" title="July 26 Movement">July 26 Movement</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-53"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-53"><span>[</span>54<span>]</span></a></sup> Despite their "contrasting personalities", from this point on Che and Fidel began to foster what dual biographer Simon Reid-Henry deems a "revolutionary friendship that would change the world", as a result of their coinciding commitment to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-imperialism" title="Anti-imperialism">anti-imperialism</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-54"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-54"><span>[</span>55<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
By this point in Guevara’s life, he deemed that U.S.-controlled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conglomerate_%28company%29" title="Conglomerate (company)">conglomerates</a> installed and supported repressive regimes around the world. In this vein, he considered Batista a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_state" title="Puppet state">U.S. puppet</a> whose strings needed cutting."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-55"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-55"><span>[</span>56<span>]</span></a></sup> Although he planned to be the group's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_medic" title="Combat medic">combat medic</a>, Guevara participated in the military training with the members of the Movement. The key portion of training involved learning hit and run tactics of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare" title="Guerrilla warfare">guerrilla warfare</a>. Guevara and the others underwent arduous 15-hour marches over mountains, across rivers, and through the dense undergrowth, learning and perfecting the procedures of ambush and quick retreat. From the start Guevara was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Bayo" title="Alberto Bayo">Alberto Bayo's</a> "prize student" among those in training, scoring the highest on all of the tests given.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-56"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-56"><span>[</span>57<span>]</span></a></sup> At the end of the course, he was called "the best guerrilla of them all" by their instructor, Colonel Bayo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-57"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-57"><span>[</span>58<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Cuban_Revolution">Cuban Revolution</span></h2><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main articles: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution" title="Cuban Revolution">Cuban Revolution</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">Battle of Santa Clara</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foco" title="Foco">Foco</a></div><h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Invasion.2C_warfare_and_Santa_Clara">Invasion, warfare and Santa Clara</span></h3><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 242px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheMuleFull.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="183" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/CheMuleFull.jpg/240px-CheMuleFull.jpg" width="240" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheMuleFull.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara atop a mule in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Province" title="Santa Clara Province">Las Villas province</a>, Cuba, November 1958</div></div></div>The first step in Castro's revolutionary plan was an assault on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba" title="Cuba">Cuba</a> from Mexico via the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granma_%28yacht%29" title="Granma (yacht)">Granma</a>,</i> an old, leaky <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_cruiser" title="Cabin cruiser">cabin cruiser</a>. They set out for Cuba on November 25, 1956. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 found each other afterwards.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-58"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-58"><span>[</span>59<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara wrote that it was during this bloody confrontation that he laid down his medical supplies and picked up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, finalizing his symbolic transition from physician to combatant.<br />
Only a small band of revolutionaries survived to re-group as a bedraggled fighting force deep in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Maestra" title="Sierra Maestra">Sierra Maestra</a> mountains, where they received support from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_guerrilla_warfare" title="Urban guerrilla warfare">urban guerrilla</a> network of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pa%C3%ADs" title="Frank País">Frank País</a>, the 26th of July Movement, and local campesinos. With the group withdrawn to the Sierra, the world wondered whether Castro was alive or dead until early 1957 when the interview by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Matthews" title="Herbert Matthews">Herbert Matthews</a> appeared in <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i>. The article presented a lasting, almost mythical image for Castro and the guerrillas. Guevara was not present for the interview, but in the coming months he began to realize the importance of the media in their struggle. Meanwhile, as supplies and morale diminished, and with an allergy to mosquito bites which resulted in agonizing walnut-sized cysts on his body,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-59"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-59"><span>[</span>60<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara considered these "the most painful days of the war."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-60"><span>[</span>61<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As the war continued, Guevara became an integral part of the rebel army and "convinced Castro with competence, diplomacy and patience."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castrosbrain1960_8-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castrosbrain1960-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara set up factories to make grenades, built ovens to bake bread, taught new recruits about tactics, and organized schools to teach illiterate campesinos to read and write.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castrosbrain1960_8-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castrosbrain1960-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup> Moreover, Guevara established health clinics, workshops to teach military tactics, and a newspaper to disseminate information.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-61"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-61"><span>[</span>62<span>]</span></a></sup> The man who three years later would be dubbed by <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine" title="Time Magazine">Time Magazine</a></i>: "Castro's brain", at this point was promoted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a> to <i>Comandante</i> (commander) of a second army column.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castrosbrain1960_8-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castrosbrain1960-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As the only other ranked Comandante besides Fidel Castro, Guevara was an extremely harsh disciplinarian who unhesitatingly shot defectors. Deserters were punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send execution squads to hunt down those seeking to go <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWOL" title="AWOL">AWOL</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-62"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-62"><span>[</span>63<span>]</span></a></sup> As a result, Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-63"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-63"><span>[</span>64<span>]</span></a></sup> During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also responsible for the often <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summary_execution" title="Summary execution">summary execution</a> of a number of men accused of being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informant" title="Informant">informers</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertion" title="Desertion">deserters</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage" title="Espionage">spies</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-execution-squads_64-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-execution-squads-64"><span>[</span>65<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In his diaries, Guevara described the first such execution of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutimio_Guerra" title="Eutimio Guerra">Eutimio Guerra</a>, a peasant army guide who admitted treason when it was discovered he accepted the promise of ten thousand pesos for repeatedly giving away the rebel's position for attack by the Cuban air force.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Lutherpg97-99_65-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Lutherpg97-99-65"><span>[</span>66<span>]</span></a></sup> Such information also allowed Batista's army to burn the homes of rebel-friendly peasants.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Lutherpg97-99_65-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Lutherpg97-99-65"><span>[</span>66<span>]</span></a></sup> Upon Guerra's request that they "end his life quickly",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Lutherpg97-99_65-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Lutherpg97-99-65"><span>[</span>66<span>]</span></a></sup> Che stepped forward and shot him in the head, writing "The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for Eutimio so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Andersonpg237_66-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Andersonpg237-66"><span>[</span>67<span>]</span></a></sup> His scientific notations and matter-of-fact description, suggested to one biographer a "remarkable detachment to violence" by that point in the war.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Andersonpg237_66-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Andersonpg237-66"><span>[</span>67<span>]</span></a></sup> Later, Guevara published a literary account of the incident entitled "Death of a Traitor", where he transfigured Eutimio's betrayal and pre-execution request that the revolution "take care of his children", into a "revolutionary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable" title="Parable">parable</a> about redemption through sacrifice."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Andersonpg237_66-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Andersonpg237-66"><span>[</span>67<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 152px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheincolor.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="203" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Cheincolor.jpg/150px-Cheincolor.jpg" width="150" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheincolor.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>In his trademark olive-green military fatigues, 2 June 1959</div></div></div>Although he maintained a demanding and harsh disposition, Guevara also viewed his role of commander as one of a teacher, entertaining his men during breaks between engagements with readings from the likes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson" title="Robert Louis Stevenson">Robert Louis Stevenson</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervantes" title="Cervantes">Cervantes</a>, and Spanish <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyric_poetry" title="Lyric poetry">lyric poets</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-67"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-67"><span>[</span>68<span>]</span></a></sup> His commanding officer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a> has described Guevara as intelligent, daring, and an exemplary leader who "had great moral authority over his troops."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-68"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-68"><span>[</span>69<span>]</span></a></sup> Castro has further remarked that Guevara took too many risks, even having a "tendency toward foolhardiness."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-69"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-69"><span>[</span>70<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara's teenage lieutenant, Joel Iglesias, recounts such actions in his diary, noting that Guevara's behavior in combat even brought admiration from the enemy. On one occasion Iglesias recounts the time he had been wounded in battle, stating "Che ran out to me, defying the bullets, threw me over his shoulder, and got me out of there. The guards didn't dare fire at him ... later they told me he made a great impression on them when they saw him run out with his pistol stuck in his belt, ignoring the danger, they didn't dare shoot."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-70"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-70"><span>[</span>71<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara was instrumental in creating the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio" title="Pirate radio">clandestine radio station</a> <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Rebelde" title="Radio Rebelde">Radio Rebelde</a></i> in February 1958, which broadcast news to the Cuban people with statements by the 26th of July movement, and provided <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotelephone" title="Radiotelephone">radiotelephone</a> communication between the growing number of rebel columns across the island. Guevara had apparently been inspired to create the station by observing the effectiveness of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="Central Intelligence Agency">CIA</a> supplied radio in Guatemala in ousting the government of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n" title="Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán">Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-radio_71-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-radio-71"><span>[</span>72<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In late July 1958, Guevara played a critical role in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Las_Mercedes" title="Battle of Las Mercedes">Battle of Las Mercedes</a> by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. Years later, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_%28United_States%29" title="Major (United States)">Major</a> Larry Bockman of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps" title="United States Marine Corps">United States Marine Corps</a> would analyze and describe Che's tactical appreciation of this battle as "brilliant."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-72"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-72"><span>[</span>73<span>]</span></a></sup> During this time Guevara also became an "expert" at leading hit and run tactics against Batista’s army, and then fading back into the countryside before the army could counterattack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-73"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-73"><span>[</span>74<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As the war extended, Guevara led a new column of fighters dispatched westward for the final push towards <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana" title="Havana">Havana</a>. Travelling by foot, Guevara embarked on a difficult 7 week march only travelling at night to avoid ambush, and often not eating for several days.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner1989pg47_74-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner1989pg47-74"><span>[</span>75<span>]</span></a></sup> In the closing days of December 1958, Guevara’s task was to cut the island in half by taking <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Villas" title="Las Villas">Las Villas</a> province. In a matter of days he executed a series of "brilliant tactical victories" that gave him control of all but the province’s capital city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara,_Cuba" title="Santa Clara, Cuba">Santa Clara</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner1989pg47_74-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner1989pg47-74"><span>[</span>75<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara then directed his "suicide squad" in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">attack on Santa Clara</a>, that became the final decisive military victory of the revolution.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-75"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-75"><span>[</span>76<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-76"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-76"><span>[</span>77<span>]</span></a></sup> In the six weeks leading up to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">Battle of Santa Clara</a> there were times when his men were completely surrounded, outgunned, and overrun. Che's eventual victory despite being outnumbered 10:1, remains in the view of some observers a "remarkable tour de force in modern warfare."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-77"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-77"><span>[</span>78<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 152px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_SClara.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="189" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Che_SClara.jpg/150px-Che_SClara.jpg" width="150" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_SClara.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>After the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">battle of Santa Clara</a>, January 1, 1959</div></div></div>Radio Rebelde broadcast the first reports that Guevara's column had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">taken Santa Clara</a> on New Year's Eve 1958. This contradicted reports by the heavily controlled national news media, which had at one stage reported Guevara's death during the fighting. At 3 am on January 1, 1959, upon learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with Guevara, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista" title="Fulgencio Batista">Fulgencio Batista</a> boarded a plane in Havana and fled for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic" title="Dominican Republic">Dominican Republic</a>, along with an amassed "fortune of more than $ 300,000,000 through graft and payoffs."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-78"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-78"><span>[</span>79<span>]</span></a></sup> The following day on January 2, Guevara entered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana" title="Havana">Havana</a> to take final control of the capitol.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-79"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-79"><span>[</span>80<span>]</span></a></sup> Fidel Castro however took 6 more days to arrive, as he stopped to rally support in several large cities on his way to rolling victoriously into Havana on January 8, 1959. In mid-January 1959, Guevara went to live at a summer villa in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarara" title="Tarara">Tarara</a> to recover from a violent asthma attack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-80"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-80"><span>[</span>81<span>]</span></a></sup> While there he started the Tarara Group, a group that debated and formed the new plans for Cuba's social, political, and economic development.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castaneda.2C_p._146_81-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castaneda.2C_p._146-81"><span>[</span>82<span>]</span></a></sup> In addition, Che began to write his book <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Warfare_%28book%29" title="Guerrilla Warfare (book)">Guerrilla Warfare</a></i> while resting at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarara" title="Tarara">Tarara</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Castaneda.2C_p._146_81-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Castaneda.2C_p._146-81"><span>[</span>82<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In February, the revolutionary government proclaimed Guevara "a Cuban citizen by birth" in recognition of his role in the triumph.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-82"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-82"><span>[</span>83<span>]</span></a></sup> When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Gadea" title="Hilda Gadea">Hilda Gadea</a> arrived in Cuba in late January, Guevara told her that he was involved with another woman, and the two agreed on a divorce,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-83"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-83"><span>[</span>84<span>]</span></a></sup> which was finalized on May 22.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-84"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-84"><span>[</span>85<span>]</span></a></sup> On June 2, 1959, he married <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleida_March" title="Aleida March">Aleida March</a>, a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958. Guevara returned to the seaside village of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarara" title="Tarara">Tarara</a> in June for his honeymoon with Aleida.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-85"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-85"><span>[</span>86<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara had children from both his marriages, and one illegitimate child, as follows: With Hilda Gadea (married August 18, 1955; divorced May 22, 1959), Hilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea, born February 15, 1956 in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City" title="Mexico City">Mexico City</a>; died August 21, 1995 in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana" title="Havana">Havana</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba" title="Cuba">Cuba</a>; with Aleida March (married June 2, 1959), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleida_Guevara" title="Aleida Guevara">Aleida Guevara March</a>, born November 24, 1960 in Havana, Cuba, Camilo Guevara March, born May 20, 1962 in Havana, Cuba, Celia Guevara March, born June 14, 1963 in Havana, Cuba, and Ernesto Guevara March, born February 24, 1965 in Havana, Cuba; and with Lilia Rosa López (extramarital), Omar Pérez, born March 19, 1964 in Havana, Cuba.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-86"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-86"><span>[</span>87<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="La_Caba.C3.B1a.2C_land_reform.2C_and_literacy">La Cabaña, land reform, and literacy</span></h3>During the rebellion against Batista's dictatorship, the general command of the rebel army, led by Fidel Castro, introduced into the liberated territories the 19th century penal law commonly known as the <i>Ley de la Sierra</i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-87"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-87"><span>[</span>88<span>]</span></a></sup> This law included the death penalty for extremely serious crimes, whether perpetrated by the dictatorship or by supporters of the revolution. In 1959, the revolutionary government extended its application to the whole of the republic and to those it considered war criminals, captured and tried after the revolution. According to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, this latter extension was supported by the majority of the population, and followed the same procedure as those in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials" title="Nuremberg Trials">Nuremberg Trials</a> held by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_II" title="Allies of World War II">Allies</a> after World War II.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-88"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-88"><span>[</span>89<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
To implement a portion of this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Caba%C3%B1a_Fortress" title="La Cabaña Fortress">La Cabaña Fortress</a> prison, for a five-month tenure (January 2 through June 12, 1959).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-89"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-89"><span>[</span>90<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara was charged with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those considered to be traitors, <i>chivatos</i> (informants) or <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_criminals" title="War criminals">war criminals</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-90"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-90"><span>[</span>91<span>]</span></a></sup> Serving in the post as commander of La Cabaña, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_9-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceA-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firing_squad" title="Firing squad">firing squad</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-91"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-91"><span>[</span>92<span>]</span></a></sup> Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, has argued that the death penalty was justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as happened twenty years earlier in the anti-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardo_Machado" title="Gerardo Machado">Machado</a> rebellion.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-92"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-92"><span>[</span>93<span>]</span></a></sup> Biographers note that in January 1959, the Cuban public was in a "lynching mood",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-93"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-93"><span>[</span>94<span>]</span></a></sup> and point to a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_9-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceA-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> Moreover, a January 22, 1959, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Newsreel" title="Universal Newsreel">Universal Newsreel</a> broadcast in the U.S. and narrated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Herlihy" title="Ed Herlihy">Ed Herlihy</a>, featured Fidel Castro asking an estimated one million Cubans whether they approved of the executions, and was met with a roaring "<i>¡Si!</i>" (yes).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-94"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-94"><span>[</span>95<span>]</span></a></sup> With 20,000 Cubans estimated to have been killed at the hands of Batista's collaborators,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-95"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-95"><span>[</span>96<span>]</span></a></sup> and many of the war criminals sentenced to death accused of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture" title="Torture">torture</a> and physical atrocities,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_9-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceA-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> the newly empowered government carried out executions which biographer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Casta%C3%B1eda_Gutman" title="Jorge Castañeda Gutman">Jorge Castañeda</a> describes as "without respect for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_process" title="Due process">due process</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144_96-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144-96"><span>[</span>97<span>]</span></a></sup> Although the exact numbers differ, it is estimated that several hundred people were executed nationwide during this time, with Guevara's jurisdictional death total at La Cabaña ranging from 55 to 164.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-97"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-97"><span>[</span>98<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Conflicting views exist of Guevara's delight towards the executions at La Cabaña. Some exiled opposition biographers report that he relished the rituals of the firing squad, and organized them with gusto, while others relate that Guevara pardoned as many prisoners as he could.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144_96-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144-96"><span>[</span>97<span>]</span></a></sup> What is acknowledged by all sides is that Guevara had become a "hardened" man, who had no qualms about the death penalty or summary and collective trials. If the only way to "defend the revolution was to execute its enemies, he would not be swayed by humanitarian or political arguments."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144_96-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Casta.C3.B1eda_1998_p_143-144-96"><span>[</span>97<span>]</span></a></sup> This is further confirmed by a February 5, 1959, letter to Luis Paredes López in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires" title="Buenos Aires">Buenos Aires</a> where Guevara states unequivocally "The executions by firing squads are not only a necessity for the people of Cuba, but also an imposition of the people."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-98"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-98"><span>[</span>99<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Manuel_Urrutia2.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="138" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Manuel_Urrutia2.jpg/200px-Manuel_Urrutia2.jpg" width="200" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Manuel_Urrutia2.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>(right to left) Rebel leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilo_Cienfuegos" title="Camilo Cienfuegos">Camilo Cienfuegos</a>, Cuban President <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Urrutia" title="Manuel Urrutia">Manuel Urrutia</a>, and Guevara (January 1959)</div></div></div>Along with ensuring "revolutionary justice", the other key early platform of Guevara's was establishing agrarian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform" title="Land reform">land reform</a>. Almost immediately after the success of the revolution on January 27, 1959, Che Guevara made one of his most significant speeches where he talked about "the social ideas of the rebel army." During this speech, he declared that the main concern of the new Cuban government was "the social justice that <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_redistribution" title="Land redistribution">land redistribution</a> brings about."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-99"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-99"><span>[</span>100<span>]</span></a></sup> A few months later on May 17, 1959, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Reform_Laws_of_Cuba" title="Agrarian Reform Laws of Cuba">Agrarian Reform Law</a> called on and crafted by Che Guevara went into effect, limiting the size of all farms to 1,000 acres. Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in 67 acre parcels or held as state run communes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-100"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-100"><span>[</span>101<span>]</span></a></sup> The law also stipulated that sugar plantations could not be owned by foreigners.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner58_101-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner58-101"><span>[</span>102<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
On June 12, 1959, Castro sent Guevara out on a three-month tour of 14 mostly <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian-African_Conference" title="Asian-African Conference">Bandung Pact</a> countries (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco" title="Morocco">Morocco</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan" title="Sudan">Sudan</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria" title="Syria">Syria</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan" title="Pakistan">Pakistan</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India">India</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka" title="Sri Lanka">Sri Lanka</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma" title="Burma">Burma</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand" title="Thailand">Thailand</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia" title="Indonesia">Indonesia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia" title="Yugoslavia">Yugoslavia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece" title="Greece">Greece</a>) and the cities of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore" title="Singapore">Singapore</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong" title="Hong Kong">Hong Kong</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-102"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-102"><span>[</span>103<span>]</span></a></sup> Sending Guevara from Havana allowed Castro to appear to be distancing himself from Che and his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism" title="Marxism">Marxist</a> sympathies, that troubled both the United States and some of Castro's 26 July Movement members.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-103"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-103"><span>[</span>104<span>]</span></a></sup> He spent 12 days in Japan (July 15–27), participating in negotiations aimed at expanding Cuba's trade relations with that nation. During the visit, Guevara refused to stop and lay a wreath at Japan's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Soldier" title="Tomb of the Unknown Soldier">Tomb of the Unknown Soldier</a> commemorating soldiers lost during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>, remarking that the Japanese "imperialists" had "killed millions of Asians."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_431_104-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_431-104"><span>[</span>105<span>]</span></a></sup> In its place, Guevara stated that he would instead visit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima" title="Hiroshima">Hiroshima</a>, where the American military had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki" title="Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki">detonated</a> an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy" title="Little Boy">atom-bomb</a> 14 years earlier.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_431_104-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_431-104"><span>[</span>105<span>]</span></a></sup> Despite his denunciation of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japan" title="Imperial Japan">Imperial Japan</a>, Guevara also considered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman" title="Harry S. Truman">President Truman</a> a "macabre clown" for the bombings,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-105"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-105"><span>[</span>106<span>]</span></a></sup> and after visiting Hiroshima and its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Museum" title="Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum">Peace Memorial Museum</a>, Che sent back a postcard to Cuba stating "In order to fight better for peace, one must look at Hiroshima."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-106"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-106"><span>[</span>107<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Upon returning to Cuba in September 1959, it was evident that Castro now had more political power. The government had begun land seizures included in the agrarian reform law, but was hedging on compensation offers to landowners, instead offering low interest "bonds", which put the U.S. on alert. At this point the affected wealthy cattlemen of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camag%C3%BCey" title="Camagüey">Camagüey</a> mounted a campaign against the land redistributions, and enlisted the newly disaffected rebel leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huber_Matos" title="Huber Matos">Huber Matos</a>, who along with the anti-Communist wing of the 26th of July Movement, joined them in denouncing the "Communist encroachment."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_435_107-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_435-107"><span>[</span>108<span>]</span></a></sup> During this time <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic" title="Dominican Republic">Dominican</a> dictator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo" title="Rafael Trujillo">Rafael Trujillo</a> was offering assistance to the "Anti-Communist Legion of the Caribbean" who was training in the Dominican Republic. This multi-national force composed mostly of Spaniards and Cubans, but also of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia" title="Croatia">Croatians</a>, Germans, Greeks, and right-wing mercenaries, were plotting to topple Castro's new regime.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_435_107-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_435-107"><span>[</span>108<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Such threats were heightened when on March 4, 1960, two massive explosions ripped through the French freighter <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Coubre_explosion" title="La Coubre explosion">La Coubre</a></i>, which was carrying Belgian munitions from the port of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antwerp" title="Antwerp">Antwerp</a>, and docked in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_Harbor" title="Havana Harbor">Havana Harbor</a>. The blasts killed at least 76 people and injured several hundred, with Guevara personally providing first aid to some of the victims. Cuban leader Fidel Castro immediately accused the CIA of "an act of terrorism" and held a state funeral the following day for the victims of the blast.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-108"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-108"><span>[</span>109<span>]</span></a></sup> It was at the memorial service that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Korda" title="Alberto Korda">Alberto Korda</a> took the famous photograph of Guevara, now known as <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_%28photo%29" title="Che Guevara (photo)">Guerrillero Heroico</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-109"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-109"><span>[</span>110<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KordaOfCheWalking.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="163" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/KordaOfCheWalking.jpg/220px-KordaOfCheWalking.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KordaOfCheWalking.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara in 1960 walking through the streets of Havana with his wife <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleida_March" title="Aleida March">Aleida March</a> (right), photographed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Korda" title="Alberto Korda">Alberto Korda</a>.</div></div></div>These perceived threats prompted Castro to further eliminate "<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-revolutionaries" title="Counter-revolutionaries">counter-revolutionaries</a>", and utilize Guevara to now drastically increase the speed of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform" title="Land reform">land reform</a>. To implement this plan, a new government agency the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Agrarian_Reform" title="National Institute of Agrarian Reform">National Institute of Agrarian Reform</a> (INRA) was established to administer the new Agrarian Reform law, and quickly became the most important governing body in the nation with Guevara serving as its head as minister of industries.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner58_101-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner58-101"><span>[</span>102<span>]</span></a></sup> Under Guevara's command, INRA established its own 100,000 person militia, used first to help the government seize control of the expropriated land and supervise its distribution, and later to set up cooperative farms. The land confiscated included 480,000 acres owned by U.S. corporations.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner58_101-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner58-101"><span>[</span>102<span>]</span></a></sup> Months later, as retaliation, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower">U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower</a> sharply reduced the import of Cuban sugar (Cuba’s main cash crop), thus leading Guevara on July 10, 1960, to address over 100,000 workers in front of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Revolution" title="Museum of the Revolution">Presidential Palace</a> at a rally called to denounce U.S. "economic aggression."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner55_110-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner55-110"><span>[</span>111<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); clear: right; float: right; font-size: 88%; margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.8em 1.4em; padding: 6px; width: 27%;"> <div style="position: relative; text-align: left;"> <div> Guevara was like a father to me ... he educated me. He taught me to think. He taught me the most beautiful thing which is to be human.<br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Urbano <small>(aka Leonardo Tamayo)</small>,<br />
fought with Che in Cuba and Bolivia<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-111"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-111"><span>[</span>112<span>]</span></a></sup></div></div>Along with land reform, one of the primary areas that Guevara stressed needed national improvement was in the area of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy" title="Literacy">literacy</a>. Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60-76 %, with educational access in rural areas and a lack of instructors the main determining factor.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellnerpg61_112-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellnerpg61-112"><span>[</span>113<span>]</span></a></sup> As a result, the Cuban government at Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education", and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominately illiterate <i>Guajiros</i> (peasants) to read and write. Unlike many of Guevara's later economic initiatives, this campaign was "a remarkable success."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellnerpg61_112-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellnerpg61-112"><span>[</span>113<span>]</span></a></sup> By the completion of the campaign, 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96 %.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellnerpg61_112-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellnerpg61-112"><span>[</span>113<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Accompanying literacy, Guevara was also concerned with establishing universal access to higher education. To accomplish this, the new regime introduced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action" title="Affirmative action">affirmative action</a> to the universities.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Andersonpg449_113-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Andersonpg449-113"><span>[</span>114<span>]</span></a></sup> While announcing this new commitment, Guevara told the gathered faculty and students at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_%22Marta_Abreu%22_of_Las_Villas" title="University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas">University of Las Villas</a> that the days when education was "a privilege of the white middle class" had ended. "The University" he said, "must paint itself black, mulatto, worker, and peasant." If it didn’t, he warned, the people would break down its doors "and paint the University the colors they like."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Andersonpg449_113-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Andersonpg449-113"><span>[</span>114<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="The_.22New_Man.22.2C_Bay_of_Pigs_and_Missile_Crisis">The "New Man", Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis</span></h3><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main articles: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion" title="Bay of Pigs Invasion">Bay of Pigs Invasion</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis" title="Cuban Missile Crisis">Cuban Missile Crisis</a></div><blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"Man truly achieves his full human condition when he produces without being compelled by the physical necessity of selling himself as a commodity."</div><div class="templatequotecite">— Che Guevara, <i>Man and Socialism in Cuba</i> <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-114"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-114"><span>[</span>115<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote>Guevara acquired the additional position of Finance Minister as President of the National Bank, which along with Minister of Industries, placed Che at the zenith of his power, as the "virtual czar" of the Cuban economy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner55_110-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner55-110"><span>[</span>111<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As a consequence of his new position, it was now Guevara's duty to sign the Cuban currency, which per custom would bear his signature. However, instead of using his more dignified full name, he dismissively signed the bills solely "<i>Che</i>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Crompton2009_115-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Crompton2009-115"><span>[</span>116<span>]</span></a></sup> It was through this symbolic act, which horrified many in the Cuban financial sector, that Guevara signaled his distaste for money and the class distinctions it brought about.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Crompton2009_115-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Crompton2009-115"><span>[</span>116<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara's long time friend Ricardo Rojo later remarked that "the day he signed <i>Che</i> on the bills, (he) literally knocked the props from under the widespread belief that money was sacred."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-116"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-116"><span>[</span>117<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beauvoir_Sartre_-_Che_Guevara_-1960_-_Cuba.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="120" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Beauvoir_Sartre_-_Che_Guevara_-1960_-_Cuba.jpg/220px-Beauvoir_Sartre_-_Che_Guevara_-1960_-_Cuba.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beauvoir_Sartre_-_Che_Guevara_-1960_-_Cuba.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Meeting with French <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism" title="Existentialism">existentialist</a> philosophers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre" title="Jean-Paul Sartre">Jean-Paul Sartre</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir" title="Simone de Beauvoir">Simone de Beauvoir</a> in March 1960. In addition to Spanish, Guevara was fluent in French.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-117"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-117"><span>[</span>118<span>]</span></a></sup></div></div></div>Guevara's first desired economic goal, which coincided with his aversion for wealth, was to see a nation-wide elimination of material incentives in favor of moral ones. He viewed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism">capitalism</a> as a "contest among wolves" where "one can only win at the cost of others," and thus desired to see the creation of a "new man and woman."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SocialismAndMan_118-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-SocialismAndMan-118"><span>[</span>119<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara continually stressed that a <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist" title="Socialist">socialist</a> economy in itself is not "worth the effort, sacrifice, and risks of war and destruction" if it ends up encouraging "greed and individual ambition at the expense of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivism" title="Collectivism">collective spirit</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner62_119-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner62-119"><span>[</span>120<span>]</span></a></sup> A primary goal of Guevara's thus became to reform "individual consciousness" and values to produce better workers and citizens.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner62_119-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner62-119"><span>[</span>120<span>]</span></a></sup> In his view, Cuba's "new man" would be able to overcome the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egotism" title="Egotism">egotism</a>" and "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfishness" title="Selfishness">selfishness</a>" that he loathed and discerned was uniquely characteristic of individuals in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist" title="Capitalist">capitalist</a> societies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner62_119-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner62-119"><span>[</span>120<span>]</span></a></sup> In describing this new method of "development", Guevara stated:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"There is a great difference between free-enterprise development and revolutionary development. In one of them, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a fortunate few, the friends of the government, the best wheeler-dealers. In the other, wealth is the people’s patrimony."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-120"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-120"><span>[</span>121<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote>A further integral part of fostering a sense of "unity between the individual and the mass", Guevara believed, was volunteer work and will. To display this, Guevara "led by example", working "endlessly at his ministry job, in construction, and even cutting sugar cane" on his day off.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-121"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-121"><span>[</span>122<span>]</span></a></sup> He was known for working 36 hours at a stretch, calling meetings after midnight, and eating on the run.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner62_119-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner62-119"><span>[</span>120<span>]</span></a></sup> Such behavior was befitting of Guevara's new program of moral incentives, where each worker was now required to meet a quota and produce a certain number of goods. However, as a replacement for the pay increases abolished by Guevara, workers who now exceeded their quota only received a certificate of commendation, while workers who failed to meet their quotas were given a pay cut.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner62_119-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner62-119"><span>[</span>120<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara unapologetically defended his personal philosophy towards motivation and work, stating:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"This is not a matter of how many pounds of meat one might be able to eat, or how many times a year someone can go to the beach, or how many ornaments from abroad one might be able to buy with his current salary. What really matters is that the individual feels more complete, with much more internal richness and much more responsibility."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-122"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-122"><span>[</span>123<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 232px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-78854-0008,_Heinrich_Rau_und_Dr._Ernesto_Guevara.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="153" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-78854-0008%2C_Heinrich_Rau_und_Dr._Ernesto_Guevara.jpg/230px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-78854-0008%2C_Heinrich_Rau_und_Dr._Ernesto_Guevara.jpg" width="230" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-78854-0008,_Heinrich_Rau_und_Dr._Ernesto_Guevara.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Che Guevara with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rau" title="Heinrich Rau">Heinrich Rau</a>, East Germany's foreign trade minister, a known Spanish Civil War veteran, in December 1960</div></div></div>In the face of a loss of commercial connections with Western states, Guevara tried to replace them with closer commercial relationships with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc" title="Eastern Bloc">Eastern Bloc</a> states, visiting a number of communist states and signing trade agreements with them. At the end of 1960 he visited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia" title="Czechoslovakia">Czechoslovakia</a>, the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.S.R." title="U.S.S.R.">U.S.S.R.</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea" title="North Korea">North Korea</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary" title="Hungary">Hungary</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany" title="East Germany">East Germany</a> and signed, for instance, a trade agreement in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Berlin" title="East Berlin">East Berlin</a> on 17 December 1960.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-123"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-123"><span>[</span>124<span>]</span></a></sup> Such agreements helped Cuba's economy to a certain degree but had also the disadvantage of a growing economic dependency on the Eastern Bloc.<br />
Whatever the merits or demerits of Guevara’s economic principles, his programs were unsuccessful.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner63_124-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner63-124"><span>[</span>125<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara's program of "moral incentives" for workers caused a rapid drop in productivity and a rapid rise in absenteeism.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-125"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-125"><span>[</span>126<span>]</span></a></sup> In reference to the collective failings of Guevara's vision, reporter <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.F._Stone" title="I.F. Stone">I.F. Stone</a> who interviewed Che twice during this time, remarked that he was "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galahad" title="Galahad">Galahad</a> not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre" title="Maximilien Robespierre">Robespierre</a>", while opining that "in a sense he was, like some early saint, taking refuge in the desert. Only there could the purity of the faith be safeguarded from the unregenerate revisionism of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature" title="Human nature">human nature</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-126"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-126"><span>[</span>127<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
On April 17, 1961, 1,400 U.S. trained Cuban exiles invaded the island during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion" title="Bay of Pigs Invasion">Bay of Pigs Invasion</a>. Guevara himself did not play a key role in the fighting, as one day before the invasion a warship carrying Marines faked an invasion off the West Coast of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinar_Del_Rio" title="Pinar Del Rio">Pinar Del Rio</a> and drew forces commanded by Guevara to that region. However, historians give Guevara, who was director of instruction for Cuba’s armed forces at the time, a share of credit for the victory.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg69_10-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg69-10"><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup> Author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tad_Szulc" title="Tad Szulc">Tad Szulc</a> in his explanation of the Cuban victory, assigns Guevara partial credit, stating: "The revolutionaries won because Che Guevara, as the head of the Instruction Department of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in charge of the militia training program, had done so well in preparing 200,000 men and women for war."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kellner89pg69_10-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Kellner89pg69-10"><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup> It was also during this deployment where he suffered a bullet grazing to the cheek when his pistol fell out of its holster and accidentally discharged.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-127"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-127"><span>[</span>128<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 227px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_and_Kim_Il-Sung,_1960.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="198" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/27/Che_Guevara_and_Kim_Il-Sung%2C_1960.jpg/225px-Che_Guevara_and_Kim_Il-Sung%2C_1960.jpg" width="225" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_and_Kim_Il-Sung,_1960.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Che Guevara with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea" title="North Korea">North Korean</a> leader <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-Sung" title="Kim Il-Sung">Kim Il-Sung</a> and a female translator, 1960</div></div></div>In August 1961, during an economic conference of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States" title="Organization of American States">Organization of American States</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punta_del_Este" title="Punta del Este">Punta del Este</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay" title="Uruguay">Uruguay</a>, Che Guevara sent a note of "gratitude" to U.S. President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy" title="John F. Kennedy">John F. Kennedy</a> through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_N._Goodwin" title="Richard N. Goodwin">Richard N. Goodwin</a>, a young secretary of the White House. It read "Thanks for Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs). Before the invasion, the revolution was shaky. Now it's stronger than ever."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-128"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-128"><span>[</span>129<span>]</span></a></sup> In response to U.S. <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasury_Secretary" title="Treasury Secretary">Treasury Secretary</a> <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Dillon" title="Douglas Dillon">Douglas Dillon</a> presenting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Progress" title="Alliance for Progress">Alliance for Progress</a> for ratification by the meeting, Guevara antagonistically attacked the United States claim of being a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">democracy</a>", stating that such a system was not compatible with "financial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy" title="Oligarchy">oligarchy</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States" title="Racial segregation in the United States">discrimination against blacks</a>, and outrages by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan" title="Ku Klux Klan">Ku Klux Klan</a>."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PuntaDelEsteChe_129-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-PuntaDelEsteChe-129"><span>[</span>130<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara continued, speaking out against the "persecution" that in his view "drove scientists like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer" title="J. Robert Oppenheimer">Oppenheimer</a> from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson" title="Paul Robeson">Paul Robeson</a>, and sent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg" title="Julius and Ethel Rosenberg">the Rosenbergs</a> to their deaths against the protests of a shocked world."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PuntaDelEsteChe_129-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-PuntaDelEsteChe-129"><span>[</span>130<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara ended his remarks by insinuating that the United States was not interested in real reforms, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardonically" title="Sardonically">sardonically</a> <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quip" title="Quip">quipping</a> that "U.S. experts never talk about agrarian reform; they prefer a safe subject, like a better water supply. In short they seem to prepare the revolution of the toilets."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceC_26-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceC-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara, who was practically the architect of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban-Soviet_relations" title="Cuban-Soviet relations">Soviet-Cuban relationship</a>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-130"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-130"><span>[</span>131<span>]</span></a></sup> then played a key role in bringing to Cuba the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon" title="Nuclear weapon">nuclear-armed</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_missile" title="Ballistic missile">ballistic missiles</a> that precipitated the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis" title="Cuban Missile Crisis">Cuban Missile Crisis</a> in October 1962 and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-131"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-131"><span>[</span>132<span>]</span></a></sup> During an interview with the British Communist newspaper The <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morning_Star" title="The Morning Star">Daily Worker</a></i> a few weeks after the crisis, Guevara still fuming over the perceived Soviet betrayal, stated that if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them off.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_545_132-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_545-132"><span>[</span>133<span>]</span></a></sup> Sam Russell, the British correspondent who spoke to Guevara at the time came away with "mixed feelings", calling him "a warm character" and "clearly a man of great intelligence", but "crackers from the way he went on about the missiles."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Anderson_1997_p_545_132-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Anderson_1997_p_545-132"><span>[</span>133<span>]</span></a></sup> The missile crisis further convinced Guevara that the two World's superpowers (U.S. & U.S.S.R.) used Cuba as a pawn in their own global strategies. Afterward he denounced the Soviets almost as frequently as he denounced the Americans.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-133"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-133"><span>[</span>134<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="International_diplomacy">International diplomacy</span></h2><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 302px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheGuevaraCountries.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="153" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/CheGuevaraCountries.jpg/300px-CheGuevaraCountries.jpg" width="300" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheGuevaraCountries.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_map" title="World map">world map</a> displaying those countries lived in or visited by Che Guevara in red. The three nations where he engaged in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_revolution" title="World revolution">armed revolution</a> are signified in green.</div></div></div>By December 1964, Che Guevara had emerged as a "revolutionary statesman of world stature" and thus traveled to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City" title="New York City">New York City</a> as head of the Cuban delegation to speak at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-134"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-134"><span>[</span>135<span>]</span></a></sup> During his impassioned address, he criticized the United Nations inability to confront the "brutal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_under_apartheid" title="South Africa under apartheid">policy of apartheid</a>" in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa" title="South Africa">South Africa</a>, proclaiming "can the United Nations do nothing to stop this?"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GuevaraUnitedNations_135-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-GuevaraUnitedNations-135"><span>[</span>136<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara then denounced the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws" title="Jim Crow laws">United States policy</a> towards their black population, stating:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GuevaraUnitedNations_135-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-GuevaraUnitedNations-135"><span>[</span>136<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote>An indignant Guevara ended his speech by reciting the <i>Second Declaration of Havana</i>, decreeing Latin America a "family of 200 million brothers who suffer the same miseries."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GuevaraUnitedNations_135-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-GuevaraUnitedNations-135"><span>[</span>136<span>]</span></a></sup> This "epic", Guevara declared, would be written by the "hungry Indian masses, peasants without land, exploited workers, and progressive masses." To Guevara the conflict was a struggle of mass and ideas, which would be carried forth by those "mistreated and scorned by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism" title="Imperialism">imperialism</a>" who were previously considered "a weak and submissive flock." With this "flock", Guevara now asserted, "Yankee monopoly capitalism" now terrifyingly saw their "gravediggers."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GuevaraUnitedNations_135-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-GuevaraUnitedNations-135"><span>[</span>136<span>]</span></a></sup> It would be during this "hour of vindication" Guevara pronounced, that the "anonymous mass" would begin to write its own history "with its own blood", and reclaim those "rights that were laughed at by one and all for 500 years." Guevara ended his remarks to the United Nations general assembly by hypothesizing that this "wave of anger” would "sweep the lands of Latin America", and that the labor masses who "turn the wheel of history", for the first time were "awakening from the long, brutalizing sleep to which they had been subjected.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GuevaraUnitedNations_135-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-GuevaraUnitedNations-135"><span>[</span>136<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara later learned that there were two failed attempts on his life by <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_exiles" title="Cuban exiles">Cuban exiles</a> during his stop at the U.N. complex.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYTDec1964_136-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-NYTDec1964-136"><span>[</span>137<span>]</span></a></sup> The first from Molly Gonzales who tried to break through barricades upon his arrival with a seven-inch hunting knife, and later during his address by Guillermo Novo with a timer-initiated bazooka that was fired off target from a boat in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River" title="East River">East River</a> at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Headquarters" title="United Nations Headquarters">United Nations Headquarters</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYTDec1964_136-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-NYTDec1964-136"><span>[</span>137<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-137"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-137"><span>[</span>138<span>]</span></a></sup> Afterwards, Guevara commented on both incidents stating that "it is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun", while adding with a languid wave of his cigar that the explosion had "given the whole thing more flavor."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NYTDec1964_136-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-NYTDec1964-136"><span>[</span>137<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 182px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheinMoscow.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="198" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/CheinMoscow.jpg/180px-CheinMoscow.jpg" width="180" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheinMoscow.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Walking through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Square" title="Red Square">Red Square</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow" title="Moscow">Moscow</a>, November 1964</div></div></div>While in New York City, Guevara also appeared on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS" title="CBS">CBS</a> Sunday news program <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_the_Nation" title="Face the Nation">Face the Nation</a></i><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-138"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-138"><span>[</span>139<span>]</span></a></sup> and met with a range of people, from U.S. Senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy" title="Eugene McCarthy">Eugene McCarthy</a><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-139"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-139"><span>[</span>140<span>]</span></a></sup> to associates of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X" title="Malcolm X">Malcolm X</a>. Malcolm X expressed his admiration, declaring Guevara "one of the most revolutionary men in this country right now" while reading a statement from him to a crowd at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audubon_Ballroom" title="Audubon Ballroom">Audubon Ballroom</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-140"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-140"><span>[</span>141<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
On December 17, Guevara left for Paris and embarked on a three-month tour that included the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China" title="People's Republic of China">People's Republic of China</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic" title="United Arab Republic">United Arab Republic</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a>), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria" title="Algeria">Algeria</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana" title="Ghana">Ghana</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea" title="Guinea">Guinea</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali" title="Mali">Mali</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin" title="Benin">Dahomey</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo" title="Republic of the Congo">Congo-Brazzaville</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania" title="Tanzania">Tanzania</a>, with stops in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland">Ireland</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague" title="Prague">Prague</a>. While in Ireland, Guevara embraced his own Irish heritage, celebrating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day" title="Saint Patrick's Day">Saint Patrick's Day</a> in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_City" title="Limerick City">Limerick City</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-141"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-141"><span>[</span>142<span>]</span></a></sup> He wrote to his father on this visit, humorously stating "I am in this green Ireland of your ancestors. When they found out, the television [station] came to ask me about the Lynch genealogy, but in case they were horse thieves or something like that, I didn't say much."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-142"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-142"><span>[</span>143<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
During this voyage, he wrote a letter to Carlos Quijano, editor of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay" title="Uruguay">Uruguayan</a> weekly, which was later re-titled <i>Socialism and Man in Cuba</i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SocialismAndMan_118-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-SocialismAndMan-118"><span>[</span>119<span>]</span></a></sup> Outlined in the treatise was Guevara's summons for the creation of a new consciousness, status of work, and role of the individual. He also laid out the reasoning behind his <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-capitalist" title="Anti-capitalist">anti-capitalist</a> sentiments, stating:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"The laws of capitalism, blind and invisible to the majority, act upon the individual without his thinking about it. He sees only the vastness of a seemingly infinite horizon before him. That is how it is painted by capitalist propagandists, who purport to draw a lesson from the example of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller" title="John D. Rockefeller">Rockefeller</a> — whether or not it is true — about the possibilities of success. The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family" title="Rockefeller family">a Rockefeller</a>, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SocialismAndMan_118-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-SocialismAndMan-118"><span>[</span>119<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote>Guevara ended the essay by declaring that "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love" and beckoning on all revolutionaries to "strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into acts that serve as examples", thus becoming "a moving force."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SocialismAndMan_118-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-SocialismAndMan-118"><span>[</span>119<span>]</span></a></sup> The genesis for Guevara's assertions relied on the fact that he believed the example of the Cuban Revolution was "something spiritual that would transcend all borders."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceC_26-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceC-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers" title="Algiers">Algiers</a> on February 24, 1965, he made what turned out to be his last public appearance on the international stage when he delivered a speech at an economic seminar on Afro-Asian solidarity.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-143"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-143"><span>[</span>144<span>]</span></a></sup> He specified the moral duty of the socialist countries, accusing them of tacit complicity with the exploiting Western countries. He proceeded to outline a number of measures which he said the communist-bloc countries must implement in order to accomplish the defeat of imperialism.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-144"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-144"><span>[</span>145<span>]</span></a></sup> Having criticized the Soviet Union (the primary financial backer of Cuba) in such a public manner, he returned to Cuba on March 14 to a solemn reception by Fidel and Raúl Castro, Osvaldo Dorticós and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez at the Havana airport.<br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheWithMao1.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="147" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/55/CheWithMao1.jpg/200px-CheWithMao1.jpg" width="200" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheWithMao1.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara took a pro-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China" title="Communist Party of China">Chinese</a> stance on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_split" title="Sino-Soviet split">Sino-Soviet split</a>. In November 1960, he was received in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_China" title="Communist China">Communist China</a> by Chairman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong" title="Mao Zedong">Mao Zedong</a> with an official ceremony in the Government palace.</div></div></div>Two weeks later, in 1965 Guevara dropped out of public life and then vanished altogether. His whereabouts were a great mystery in Cuba, as he was generally regarded as second in power to Castro himself. His disappearance was variously attributed to the failure of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialization" title="Industrialization">industrialization</a> scheme he had advocated while minister of industry, to pressure exerted on Castro by Soviet officials disapproving of Guevara's pro-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China" title="Communist Party of China">Chinese Communist</a> stance on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_split" title="Sino-Soviet split">Sino-Soviet split</a>, and to serious differences between Guevara and the pragmatic Castro regarding Cuba's economic development and ideological line.<br />
The coincidence of Guevara's views with those expounded by the Chinese Communist leadership was increasingly problematic for Cuba as the nation's economy became more and more dependent on the Soviet Union. Since the early days of the Cuban revolution, Guevara had been considered by many an advocate of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism" title="Maoism">Maoist</a> strategy in Latin America and the originator of a plan for the rapid industrialization of Cuba which was frequently compared to China's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward" title="Great Leap Forward">Great Leap Forward</a>." Castro became weary of Guevara's opposition to Soviet conditions and recommendations; measures that Castro saw as necessary, but which Guevara described as corrupt and "pre-monopolist."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-145"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-145"><span>[</span>146<span>]</span></a></sup> However, both Guevara and Castro were supportive publicly on the idea of a united front.<br />
Following the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis" title="Cuban Missile Crisis">Cuban Missile Crisis</a> and what Guevara perceived as a Soviet betrayal when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev" title="Nikita Khrushchev">Nikita Khrushchev</a> withdrew the missiles from Cuban territory, Guevara had grown more skeptical of the Soviet Union. As revealed in his last speech in Algiers, he had come to view the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hemisphere" title="Northern Hemisphere">Northern Hemisphere</a>, led by the U.S. in the West and the Soviet Union in the East, as the exploiter of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Hemisphere" title="Southern Hemisphere">Southern Hemisphere</a>. He strongly supported Communist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Vietnam" title="North Vietnam">North Vietnam</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War">Vietnam War</a>, and urged the peoples of other developing countries to take up arms and create "many Vietnams."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MessTricont1967_146-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-MessTricont1967-146"><span>[</span>147<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Pressed by international speculation regarding Guevara's fate, Castro stated on June 16, 1965 that the people would be informed when Guevara himself wished to let them know. Still, rumors spread both inside and outside Cuba. On October 3, Castro revealed an undated letter purportedly written to him by Guevara some months earlier: in it, Guevara reaffirmed his enduring solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, but declared his intention to leave Cuba to fight for the revolutionary cause abroad. Additionally, he resigned from all his positions in the government and party, and renounced his honorary Cuban citizenship.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-147"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-147"><span>[</span>148<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara's movements continued to be a closely guarded secret for the next two years.<br />
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Congo">Congo</span></h2><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 187px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheInCongo1965.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="253" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/CheInCongo1965.jpg/185px-CheInCongo1965.jpg" width="185" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheInCongo1965.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>A 37-year-old Guevara, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis" title="Congo Crisis">Congo Crisis</a>, 1965.</div></div></div>In 1965, Guevara decided to venture to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa" title="Africa">Africa</a> and offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis" title="Congo Crisis">conflict in the Congo</a>. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria" title="Algeria">Algerian</a> President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ben_Bella" title="Ahmed Ben Bella">Ahmed Ben Bella</a>, Guevara thought that Africa was imperialism's weak link and therefore had enormous revolutionary potential.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-148"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-148"><span>[</span>149<span>]</span></a></sup> Egyptian President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser" title="Gamal Abdel Nasser">Gamal Abdel Nasser</a>, who had fraternal relations with Che dating back to his 1959 visit, saw Guevara's plans to fight in the Congo as "unwise" and warned that he would become a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan" title="Tarzan">Tarzan</a>" figure, doomed to failure.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-149"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-149"><span>[</span>150<span>]</span></a></sup> Despite the warning, Guevara traveled to the Congo while using the alias Ramón Benítez.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-150"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-150"><span>[</span>151<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement, which had emerged from the ongoing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis" title="Congo Crisis">Congo Crisis</a>. Guevara, his second-in-command <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Dreke" title="Victor Dreke">Victor Dreke</a>, and 12 other Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on April 24, 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Cuban" title="Afro-Cuban">Afro-Cubans</a> joined them soon afterward.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-151"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-151"><span>[</span>152<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-152"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-152"><span>[</span>153<span>]</span></a></sup> They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent-D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9_Kabila" title="Laurent-Désiré Kabila">Laurent-Désiré Kabila</a>, who had previously helped supporters of the overthrown <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba" title="Patrice Lumumba">Patrice Lumumba</a> lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier. As an admirer of the late Lumumba, Guevara declared that his "murder should be a lesson for all of us."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-153"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-153"><span>[</span>154<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara, with limited knowledge of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language" title="Swahili language">Swahili</a> and the local languages was assigned a teenage interpreter Freddy Ilanga. Over the course of seven months Ilanga grew to "admire the hard-working Guevara", who according to Mr. Ilanga, "showed the same respect to black people as he did to whites."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-154"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-154"><span>[</span>155<span>]</span></a></sup> However Guevara soon became disillusioned with the discipline of Kabila's troops and later dismissed him, stating "nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-155"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-155"><span>[</span>156<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
As an additional obstacle, white <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa" title="South Africa">South African</a> mercenaries, led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hoare" title="Mike Hoare">Mike Hoare</a> in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique" title="Force Publique">Congo National Army</a> to thwart Guevara in the mountains near the village of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizi" title="Fizi">Fizi</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tanganyika" title="Lake Tanganyika">Lake Tanganyika</a>. They were able to monitor his communications, and so pre-empted his attacks and interdicted his supply lines. Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was aware of his location and activities: The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency" title="National Security Agency">National Security Agency</a> was intercepting all of his incoming and outgoing transmissions via equipment aboard the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Private_Jose_F._Valdez_%28T-AG-169%29" title="USNS Private Jose F. Valdez (T-AG-169)">USNS <i>Private Jose F. Valdez</i> (T-AG-169)</a>, a floating listening post that continuously cruised the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean" title="Indian Ocean">Indian Ocean</a> off <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar_es_Salaam" title="Dar es Salaam">Dar es Salaam</a> for that purpose.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-156"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-156"><span>[</span>157<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 172px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheguevaracongo.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="111" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Cheguevaracongo.jpg/170px-Cheguevaracongo.jpg" width="170" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheguevaracongo.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Listening to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_Electronics" title="Zenith Electronics">Zenith</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Oceanic" title="Trans-Oceanic">Trans-Oceanic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave" title="Shortwave">shortwave</a> receiver are (seated from the left) Rogelio Oliva, José María Martínez Tamayo (known as "Mbili" in the Congo and "Ricardo" in Bolivia), and Guevara. Standing behind them is Roberto Sánchez ("Lawton" in Cuba and "Changa" in the Congo).</div></div></div>Guevara's aim was to <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_the_revolution" title="Export the revolution">export the revolution</a> by instructing local anti-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko" title="Mobutu Sese Seko">Mobutu</a> Simba fighters in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist" title="Marxist">Marxist</a> ideology and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foco_theory" title="Foco theory">foco theory</a> strategies of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare" title="Guerrilla warfare">guerrilla warfare</a>. In his <i>Congo Diary</i>, he cites the incompetence, intransigence and infighting of the local Congolese forces as key reasons for the revolt's failure.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-157"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-157"><span>[</span>158<span>]</span></a></sup> Later that year, ill with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery" title="Dysentery">dysentery</a>, suffering from acute asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors (Six members of his column had died). At one point Guevara considered sending the wounded back to Cuba, and fighting in Congo alone until his death, as a revolutionary example; however, after being urged by his comrades and pressed by two emissaries sent by Castro, at the last moment he reluctantly agreed to retreat. In speaking about the Congo, Guevara concluded that "The human element failed. There is no will to fight, the leaders are corrupt; in a word, there was nothing to do."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-158"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-158"><span>[</span>159<span>]</span></a></sup> A few weeks later, when writing the preface to the diary he kept during the Congo venture, he began: "This is the history of a failure."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-159"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-159"><span>[</span>160<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara was reluctant to return to Cuba, because Castro had made public Guevara's "farewell letter" — a letter intended to only be revealed in the case of his death — wherein he severed all ties in order to devote himself to revolution throughout the world.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-160"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-160"><span>[</span>161<span>]</span></a></sup> As a result, Guevara spent the next six months living clandestinely in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar_es_Salaam" title="Dar es Salaam">Dar es Salaam</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague" title="Prague">Prague</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-161"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-161"><span>[</span>162<span>]</span></a></sup> During this time he compiled his memoirs of the Congo experience, and wrote drafts of two more books, one on philosophy and the other on economics. He then visited several Western European countries to test his new false identity papers, created by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Directorate" title="Intelligence Directorate">Cuban Intelligence</a> for his later travels to South America. As Guevara prepared for Bolivia, he wrote a last letter to his five children to be read upon his death, which ended with him instructing them:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-162"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-162"><span>[</span>163<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Bolivia">Bolivia</span></h2><div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_bajo_identidad_Adolfo_Mena_Gonz%C3%A1lez_-_1966.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="164" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Che_Guevara_bajo_identidad_Adolfo_Mena_Gonz%C3%A1lez_-_1966.jpg/220px-Che_Guevara_bajo_identidad_Adolfo_Mena_Gonz%C3%A1lez_-_1966.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_bajo_identidad_Adolfo_Mena_Gonz%C3%A1lez_-_1966.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Guevara in disguise, while using the alias Adolfo Mena González (1966)</div></div></div>In late 1966, Guevara's location was still not public knowledge, although representatives of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique" title="Mozambique">Mozambique</a>'s independence movement, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRELIMO" title="FRELIMO">FRELIMO</a>, reported that they met with Guevara in late 1966 or early 1967 in Dar es Salaam regarding his offer to aid in their revolutionary project, which they ultimately rejected.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-163"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-163"><span>[</span>164<span>]</span></a></sup> In a speech at the 1967 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day" title="International Workers' Day">International Workers' Day</a> rally in Havana, the Acting Minister of the armed forces, Major <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Almeida" title="Juan Almeida">Juan Almeida</a>, announced that Guevara was "serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America".<br />
Before he departed for Bolivia, Guevara altered his appearance so he would be unrecognizable as Che Guevara.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-164"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-164"><span>[</span>165<span>]</span></a></sup> In November, 1966, Guevara secretly arrived in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz,_Bolivia" title="La Paz, Bolivia">La Paz, Bolivia</a> on a flight from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montevideo" title="Montevideo">Montevideo</a>, Uruguay under the false name Adolfo Mena González, and posed as a Uruguayan businessman working for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States" title="Organization of American States">Organization of American States</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-165"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-165"><span>[</span>166<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheinBolivia1.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="138" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/CheinBolivia1.jpg/220px-CheinBolivia1.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheinBolivia1.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>In rural <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia" title="Bolivia">Bolivia</a> shortly before his death (1967)</div></div></div>Guevara's first base camp was located in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_and_subtropical_dry_broadleaf_forests" title="Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests">montane dry forest</a> in the remote Ñancahuazú region. Training at the camp in the Ñancahuazú valley however proved to be hazardous and little was accomplished in the way of building a guerrilla army. Former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi" title="Stasi">Stasi</a> operative <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_Bunke" title="Tamara Bunke">Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider</a>, better known by her <i><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nom_de_guerre" title="Nom de guerre">nom de guerre</a></i> "Tania", who had been installed as his primary agent in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz" title="La Paz">La Paz</a>, was reportedly also working for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB" title="KGB">KGB</a> and in several Western sources she is inferred to have unwittingly served Soviet interests by leading Bolivian authorities to Guevara's trail.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-.23refSelvage1985.7CSelvage_1985_166-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-.23refSelvage1985.7CSelvage_1985-166"><span>[</span>167<span>]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-167"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-167"><span>[</span>168<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara's guerrilla force, numbering about 50<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-168"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-168"><span>[</span>169<span>]</span></a></sup> and operating as the ELN (<i>Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia</i>; "<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Liberation_Army_of_Bolivia" title="National Liberation Army of Bolivia">National Liberation Army of Bolivia</a>"), was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against Bolivian army regulars in the difficult terrain of the mountainous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camiri" title="Camiri">Camiri</a> region. As a result of Guevara’s units winning several skirmishes against Bolivian troops in the spring and summer of 1967, the Bolivian government began to overestimate the true size of the guerrilla force.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-169"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-169"><span>[</span>170<span>]</span></a></sup> But in September, the Army managed to eliminate two guerrilla groups in a violent battle, reportedly killing one of the leaders.<br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vallegrande_location.png"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="235" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Vallegrande_location.png/220px-Vallegrande_location.png" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vallegrande_location.png" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>Location of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallegrande" title="Vallegrande">Vallegrande</a> in Bolivia</div></div></div>Researchers hypothesize that Guevara's plan for fomenting revolution in Bolivia failed, for an array of reasons:<br />
<ul><li>He had expected to deal only with the Bolivian military, who were poorly trained and equipped. However, Guevara was unaware that the U.S. government had sent a team of the CIA's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division" title="Special Activities Division">Special Activities Division</a> commandos and other operatives into Bolivia to aid the anti-insurrection effort. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivian_Army" title="Bolivian Army">Bolivian Army</a> would also be trained, advised, and supplied by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Forces_%28United_States_Army%29" title="Special Forces (United States Army)">U.S. Army Special Forces</a> including a recently organized elite battalion of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Rangers" title="United States Army Rangers">Rangers</a> trained in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_warfare" title="Jungle warfare">jungle warfare</a> that set up camp in La Esperanza, a small settlement close to the location of Guevara's guerrillas.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-170"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-170"><span>[</span>171<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Guevara had expected assistance and cooperation from the local dissidents which he did not receive, nor did he receive support from Bolivia's Communist Party, under the leadership of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Monje" title="Mario Monje">Mario Monje</a>, which was oriented toward Moscow rather than Havana. In Guevara's own diary captured after his death, he wrote about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Bolivia" title="Communist Party of Bolivia">Communist Party of Bolivia</a>, which he characterized as "distrustful, disloyal and stupid."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-171"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-171"><span>[</span>172<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>He had expected to remain in radio contact with Havana. However, the two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave" title="Shortwave">shortwave</a> transmitters provided to him by Cuba were faulty; thus the guerrillas were unable to communicate with and be resupplied, leaving them isolated and stranded.</li>
</ul>In addition, Guevara's known preference for confrontation rather than compromise, which had previously surfaced during his guerrilla warfare campaign in Cuba, contributed to his inability to develop successful working relationships with local leaders in Bolivia, just as it had in the Congo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-172"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-172"><span>[</span>173<span>]</span></a></sup> This tendency had existed in Cuba, but had been kept in check by the timely interventions and guidance of Fidel Castro.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-173"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-173"><span>[</span>174<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
The end result was that Guevara was unable to attract inhabitants of the local area to join his militia during the 11 months he attempted recruitment. Near the end of the venture Guevara wrote in his diary that "the peasants do not give us any help, and are turning into informers."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-174"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-174"><span>[</span>175<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Capture_and_execution">Capture and execution</span></h3><div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); clear: right; float: right; font-size: 88%; margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.8em 1.4em; padding: 6px; width: 32%;"> <div style="position: relative; text-align: left;"> <div> There was no person more feared by the company (CIA) than Che Guevara because he had the capacity and charisma necessary to direct the struggle against the political repression of the traditional hierarchies in power in the countries of Latin America.<br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee" title="Philip Agee">Philip Agee</a>, CIA agent, later defected to Cuba<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Guevara2009pgII_175-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Guevara2009pgII-175"><span>[</span>176<span>]</span></a></sup></div></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Rodr%C3%ADguez_%28Central_Intelligence_Agency%29" title="Félix Rodríguez (Central Intelligence Agency)">Félix Rodríguez</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_exile" title="Cuban exile">Cuban exile</a> turned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="Central Intelligence Agency">CIA</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division" title="Special Activities Division">Special Activities Division</a> operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-176"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-176"><span>[</span>177<span>]</span></a></sup> In addition, the 2007 documentary <i>My Enemy's Enemy</i>, directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Macdonald_%28director%29" title="Kevin Macdonald (director)">Kevin Macdonald</a>, alleges that <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi" title="Nazi">Nazi</a> war criminal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie#Che_Guevara" title="Klaus Barbie">Klaus Barbie</a> aka <i>"The Butcher of Lyon"</i>, advised and possibly helped the CIA orchestrate Guevara's eventual capture.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ObserverChe_177-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ObserverChe-177"><span>[</span>178<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
On October 7, an informant apprised the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment in the Yuro ravine. They encircled the area with 1,800 soldiers, and Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner while leading a detachment with <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sime%C3%B3n_Cuba_Sarabia" title="Simeón Cuba Sarabia">Simeón Cuba Sarabia</a>. Che biographer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lee_Anderson" title="Jon Lee Anderson">Jon Lee Anderson</a> reports Bolivian Sergeant Bernardino Huanca's account: that a twice wounded Guevara, his gun rendered useless, shouted "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-178"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-178"><span>[</span>179<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Guevara was tied up and taken to a dilapidated mud schoolhouse in the nearby village of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Higuera" title="La Higuera">La Higuera</a> on the night of October 7. For the next day-and-a-half, Guevara refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers and would only speak quietly to Bolivian soldiers. One of those Bolivian soldiers, helicopter pilot Jaime Nino de Guzman, describes Che as looking "dreadful". According to Guzman, Guevara was shot through the right calf, his hair was matted with dirt, his clothes were shredded, and his feet were covered in rough leather sheaths. Despite his haggard appearance, he recounts that "Che held his head high, looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only for something to smoke." De Guzman states that he "took pity" and gave him a small bag of tobacco for his pipe, with Guevara then smiling and thanking him.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-The_Man_Who_Buried_Che_179-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-The_Man_Who_Buried_Che-179"><span>[</span>180<span>]</span></a></sup> Later on the night of October 8, Guevara, despite having his hands tied, kicked Bolivian Officer Espinosa into the wall, after the officer entered the schoolhouse in order to snatch Guevara's pipe from his mouth as a souvenir.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Mich.C3.A8le_180-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Mich.C3.A8le-180"><span>[</span>181<span>]</span></a></sup> In another instance of defiance, Guevara spat in the face of Bolivian Rear Admiral Ugarteche shortly before his execution.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Mich.C3.A8le_180-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Mich.C3.A8le-180"><span>[</span>181<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
The following morning on October 9, Guevara asked to see the <i>"maestra"</i> (school teacher) of the village, 22-year-old Julia Cortez. Cortez would later state that she found Guevara to be an "agreeable looking man with a soft and ironic glance" and that during their conversation she found herself "unable to look him in the eye", because his "gaze was unbearable, piercing, and so tranquil."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Mich.C3.A8le_180-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Mich.C3.A8le-180"><span>[</span>181<span>]</span></a></sup> During their short conversation, Guevara pointed out to Cortez the poor condition of the schoolhouse, stating that it was "anti-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy" title="Pedagogy">pedagogical</a>" to expect campesino students to be educated there, while "government officials drive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_%28car%29" title="Mercedes (car)">Mercedes</a> cars" ... declaring "that's what we are fighting against."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Mich.C3.A8le_180-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Mich.C3.A8le-180"><span>[</span>181<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Later that morning on October 9, Bolivian President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Barrientos" title="René Barrientos">René Barrientos</a> ordered that Guevara be killed. The order was relayed by Félix Rodríguez despite the US government’s desire that Guevara be taken to Panama.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-181"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-181"><span>[</span>182<span>]</span></a></sup> The executioner was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Ter%C3%A1n" title="Mario Terán">Mario Terán</a>, a half-drunken sergeant in the Bolivian army who had requested to shoot Che on the basis of the fact that three of his friends from B Company, all named "Mario", had been killed in an earlier firefight with Guevara's band of guerrillas.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_9-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-ReferenceA-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> To make the bullet wounds appear consistent with the story the government planned to release to the public, Félix Rodríguez ordered Terán to aim carefully to make it appear that Guevara had been killed in action during a clash with the Bolivian army.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-182"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-182"><span>[</span>183<span>]</span></a></sup> Gary Prado, a Bolivian soldier who was with the group that captured Guevara, said that the reasons Barrientos ordered the immediate execution of Guevara is so there would be no possibility that Guevara would escape from prison, and also so there would be no drama in regard to a trial.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-183"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-183"><span>[</span>184<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Moments before Guevara was executed he was asked if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No", he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-184"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-184"><span>[</span>185<span>]</span></a></sup> When Sergeant Terán entered the hut, Che Guevara then told his executioner, "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-185"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-185"><span>[</span>186<span>]</span></a></sup> Terán hesitated, then opened fire with his semiautomatic rifle, hitting Guevara in the arms and legs. Guevara writhed on the ground, apparently biting one of his wrists to avoid crying out. Terán then fired several times again, wounding him fatally in the chest at 1:10 pm, according to Rodríguez.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-186"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-186"><span>[</span>187<span>]</span></a></sup> In all, Guevara was shot nine times. This included five times in the legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Mich.C3.A8le_180-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Mich.C3.A8le-180"><span>[</span>181<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
Months earlier, during his last public declaration to the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricontinental_Conference" title="Tricontinental Conference">Tricontinental Conference</a>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MessTricont1967_146-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-MessTricont1967-146"><span>[</span>147<span>]</span></a></sup> Guevara wrote his own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph" title="Epitaph">epitaph</a>, stating "Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-187"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-187"><span>[</span>188<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Post-execution.2C_remains_and_memorial">Post-execution, remains and memorial</span></h3><div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 242px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FreddyAlbertoChe.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="159" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/FreddyAlbertoChe.jpg/240px-FreddyAlbertoChe.jpg" width="240" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FreddyAlbertoChe.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div>The day after his execution on October 10, 1967, Guevara's corpse was displayed to the world <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_media" title="News media">press</a> in the laundry house of the Vallegrande hospital. (photo by Freddy Alborta)<br />
<b><span style="white-space: nowrap;"> </span><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Camera-photo.svg"><img alt="Camera-photo.svg" height="17" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Camera-photo.svg/17px-Camera-photo.svg.png" width="17" /></a><span style="white-space: nowrap;"> </span><a class="external text" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:CheExec9B.jpg" rel="nofollow">Face</a> <span style="white-space: nowrap;"> </span> <a class="external text" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:CheExec19.jpg" rel="nofollow">Side angle</a> <span style="white-space: nowrap;"> </span><a class="external text" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Exec22.gif" rel="nofollow">Shoes</a></b></div></div></div><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle">Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_Mausoleum" title="Che Guevara Mausoleum">Che Guevara Mausoleum</a></div>After his execution, Guevara's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallegrande" title="Vallegrande">Vallegrande</a>, where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab in the laundry room of the Nuestra Señora de Malta.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-188"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-188"><span>[</span>189<span>]</span></a></sup> As hundreds of local residents filed past the body, many of them considered Guevara's corpse to represent a "Christ-like" visage, with some of them even surreptitiously clipping locks of his hair as divine relics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-189"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-189"><span>[</span>190<span>]</span></a></sup> Such comparisons were further extended when two weeks later upon seeing the post-mortem photographs, English art critic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger" title="John Berger">John Berger</a> observed that they resembled two famous paintings: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt" title="Rembrandt">Rembrandt</a>'s <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_Lesson_of_Dr._Nicolaes_Tulp" title="The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp">The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp</a></i> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna" title="Andrea Mantegna">Andrea Mantegna</a>'s <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamentation_over_the_Dead_Christ_%28Mantegna%29" title="Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Mantegna)">Lamentation over the Dead Christ</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-190"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-190"><span>[</span>191<span>]</span></a></sup> There were also four correspondents present when Guevara's body arrived in Vallegrande, including <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjorn_Kumm" title="Bjorn Kumm">Bjorn Kumm</a> of the Swedish <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftonbladet" title="Aftonbladet">Aftonbladet</a></i>, who described the scene in an November 11, 1967, exclusive for <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic" title="The New Republic">The New Republic</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-191"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-191"><span>[</span>192<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
A declassified memorandum dated October 11, 1967 to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States">United States President</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson" title="Lyndon B. Johnson">Lyndon B. Johnson</a> from his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Advisor_%28United_States%29" title="National Security Advisor (United States)">National Security Advisor</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman_Rostow" title="Walt Whitman Rostow">Walt Whitman Rostow</a>, called the decision to kill Guevara "stupid" but "understandable from a Bolivian standpoint."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-192"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-192"><span>[</span>193<span>]</span></a></sup> After the execution, Rodríguez took several of Guevara's personal items, including a <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_GMT_Master" title="Rolex GMT Master">Rolex GMT Master</a> wristwatch<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-193"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-193"><span>[</span>194<span>]</span></a></sup> which he continued to wear many years later, often showing them to reporters during the ensuing years.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-194"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-194"><span>[</span>195<span>]</span></a></sup> Today, some of these belongings, including his flashlight, are on display at the CIA.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-195"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-195"><span>[</span>196<span>]</span></a></sup> After a military doctor amputated his hands, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara's body to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains had been buried or cremated. The hands were preserved in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde" title="Formaldehyde">formaldehyde</a> to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. (His fingerprints were on file with the Argentine police.) They were later sent to Cuba.<br />
<div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 222px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SculptureCheGuevaraCuba.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="165" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/SculptureCheGuevaraCuba.jpg/220px-SculptureCheGuevaraCuba.jpg" width="220" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SculptureCheGuevaraCuba.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_la_Revoluci%C3%B3n" title="Plaza de la Revolución">Plaza de la Revolución</a>, in Havana, Cuba. Aside the Ministry of the Interior building where Guevara once worked, is a 5 story steel outline of his face. Under the image is Guevara's motto, the Spanish phrase: <i>"Hasta la Victoria Siempre"</i> (English: Until the Everlasting Victory Always).</div></div></div>On October 15, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a> acknowledged that Guevara was dead and proclaimed three days of public mourning throughout the island.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-196"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-196"><span>[</span>197<span>]</span></a></sup> On October 18, Castro addressed a crowd of one million mourners in Havana's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_la_Revoluci%C3%B3n" title="Plaza de la Revolución">Plaza de la Revolución</a> and spoke about Guevara's character as a revolutionary.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-197"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-197"><span>[</span>198<span>]</span></a></sup> Fidel Castro closed his impassioned eulogy thusly:<br />
<blockquote class="templatequote"> <div>"If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-198"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-198"><span>[</span>199<span>]</span></a></sup></div></blockquote><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people" title="French people">French</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual" title="Intellectual">intellectual</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9gis_Debray" title="Régis Debray">Régis Debray</a>, who was captured in April 1967 while with Guevara in Bolivia, gave an interview from prison, in August 1968, where he enlarged on the circumstances of Guevara's capture. Debray, who had lived with Guevara's band of guerrillas for a short time, said that in his view they were "victims of the forest" and thus "eaten by the jungle."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Nadle_199-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Nadle-199"><span>[</span>200<span>]</span></a></sup> Debray described a destitute situation where Guevara's men suffered malnutrition, lack of water, absence of shoes, and only possessed six blankets for 22 men. Debray recounts that Guevara and the others had been suffering an "illness" which caused their hands and feet to swell into "mounds of flesh" to the point where you could not discern the fingers on their hands.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Nadle_199-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Nadle-199"><span>[</span>200<span>]</span></a></sup> Despite the futile situation, Debray described Guevara as "optimistic about the future of Latin America" and remarked that Guevara was "resigned to die in the knowledge that his death would be a sort of renaissance", noting that Guevara perceived death "as a promise of rebirth" and "ritual of renewal."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Nadle_199-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-Nadle-199"><span>[</span>200<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
In late 1995, retired Bolivian General Mario Vargas revealed to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lee_Anderson" title="Jon Lee Anderson">Jon Lee Anderson</a>, author of <i>Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life</i>, that Guevara's body was located near a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallegrande" title="Vallegrande">Vallegrande</a> airstrip. The result was a multi-national search for the remains, which would last more than a year. In July 1997, a team of Cuban <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologist" title="Geologist">geologists</a> and Argentine <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_anthropology" title="Forensic anthropology">forensic anthropologists</a> discovered the remnants of seven bodies in two mass graves, including one man with amputated hands (like Guevara). Bolivian government officials with the Ministry of Interior later identified the body as Guevara when the excavated teeth "perfectly matched" a plaster mold of Che's teeth, made in Cuba prior to his Congolese expedition. The "clincher" then arrived when Argentine forensic anthropologist Alejandro Inchaurregui inspected the inside hidden pocket of a blue jacket dug up next to the handless cadaver and found a small bag of pipe tobacco. Nino de Guzman, the Bolivian helicopter pilot who had given Che a small bag of tobacco, later remarked that he "had serious doubts" at first and "thought the Cubans would just find any old bones and call it Che"; however he stated "after hearing about the tobacco pouch, I have no doubts."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-The_Man_Who_Buried_Che_179-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-The_Man_Who_Buried_Che-179"><span>[</span>180<span>]</span></a></sup> On October 17, 1997, Guevara's remains, with those of six of his fellow combatants, were laid to rest with military honors in a specially built <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleo_Che_Guevara" title="Mausoleo Che Guevara">mausoleum</a> in the Cuban city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara,_Cuba" title="Santa Clara, Cuba">Santa Clara</a>, where he had commanded over the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Clara" title="Battle of Santa Clara">decisive military victory</a> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution" title="Cuban Revolution">Cuban Revolution</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-200"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-200"><span>[</span>201<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<div class="thumb tleft"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_-_Grab_in_Santa_Clara,_Kuba.jpg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="150" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Che_Guevara_-_Grab_in_Santa_Clara%2C_Kuba.jpg/200px-Che_Guevara_-_Grab_in_Santa_Clara%2C_Kuba.jpg" width="200" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a class="internal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Che_Guevara_-_Grab_in_Santa_Clara,_Kuba.jpg" title="Enlarge"><img alt="" height="11" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" /></a></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_Mausoleum" title="Che Guevara Mausoleum">Che Guevara's Monument and Mausoleum</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara,_Cuba" title="Santa Clara, Cuba">Santa Clara, Cuba</a>.</div></div></div>Removed when Guevara was captured was his 30,000-word, hand-written diary, a collection of his personal poetry, and a short story he authored about a young Communist guerrilla who learns to overcome his fears.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-201"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-201"><span>[</span>202<span>]</span></a></sup> His diary documented events of the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-202"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-202"><span>[</span>203<span>]</span></a></sup> with the first entry on November 7, 1966 shortly after his arrival at the farm in Ñancahuazú, and the last dated October 7, 1967, the day before his capture. The diary tells how the guerrillas were forced to begin operations prematurely because of discovery by the Bolivian Army, explains Guevara's decision to divide the column into two units that were subsequently unable to re-establish contact, and describes their overall unsuccessful venture. It also records the rift between Guevara and the Communist Party of Bolivia that resulted in Guevara having significantly fewer soldiers than originally expected and shows that Guevara had a great deal of difficulty recruiting from the local populace, partly because of the fact that the guerrilla group had learned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quechua" title="Quechua">Quechua</a>, unaware that the local language was actually <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tup%C3%AD-Guaran%C3%AD" title="Tupí-Guaraní">Tupí-Guaraní</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-203"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-203"><span>[</span>204<span>]</span></a></sup> As the campaign drew to an unexpected close, Guevara became increasingly ill. He suffered from ever-worsening bouts of asthma, and most of his last offensives were carried out in an attempt to obtain medicine.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-204"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-204"><span>[</span>205<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
The Bolivian Diary was quickly and crudely translated by <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramparts_%28magazine%29" title="Ramparts (magazine)">Ramparts</a></i> magazine and circulated around the world.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-205"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-205"><span>[</span>206<span>]</span></a></sup> There are at least four additional diaries in existence—those of Israel Reyes Zayas (Alias "Braulio"), Harry Villegas Tamayo (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_%22Pombo%22_Villegas" title="Harry "Pombo" Villegas">"Pombo"</a>), Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez ("Rolando")<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-.23refSelvage1985.7CSelvage_1985_166-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-.23refSelvage1985.7CSelvage_1985-166"><span>[</span>167<span>]</span></a></sup> and Dariel Alarcón Ramírez ("Benigno")<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-206"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-206"><span>[</span>207<span>]</span></a></sup>—each of which reveals additional aspects of the events. In July 2008, the Bolivian government of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales" title="Evo Morales">Evo Morales</a> unveiled Guevara's formerly sealed diaries composed in two frayed notebooks, along with a logbook and several black-and-white photographs. At this event, Bolivia's vice minister of culture, Pablo Groux, expressed that there were plans to publish photographs of every handwritten page later in the year.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-207"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-207"><span>[</span>208<span>]</span></a></sup> Meanwhile, in August 2009, anthropologists working for Bolivia's Justice Ministry discovered and unearthed five of Guevara's fellow guerrillas near the Bolivian town of Teoponte.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-208"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara#cite_note-208"><span>[</span>209<span>]</span></a></sup><br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-208"><span>Wikipedia source </span></sup></td> </tr>
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