On October 9, 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Ché Guevara, was killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 and assassinated him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body buried in an unmarked grave. But why was he killed?
Ernesto Guevara, known as Ché, was an Argentine doctor who became a Marxist revolutionary. He was instrumental in the Cuban Revolution during the 1950s.
Modest beginnings
The oldest in the family, Ernesto was home-schooled by his mother, and exposed to the family’s leftist political ideology. He read the works of Chilean poet-turned-diplomat Pablo Neruda, Karl Marx and Vladimir I. Lenin. When Ernesto was 14, he joined the Partido Unión Democrática and took part in street fights against the peronistas , the supporters of Argentine dictator Juan Perón.
After school, Ernesto chose to pursue a career in medicine, but left it halfway to tour South America on a motorcycle. He was affected by the poverty, hunger, and disease that he saw during his travels. He returned to Argentina to finish his studies, but his vision had changed. Guevara decided to commit his life to helping the poor and oppressed.
He travelled to Guatemala, and joined the Alliance of Democratic Youth, a leftist organisation that supported Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán and Guatemala’s Labour party. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency soon overtook Arbenz’s government. This was the first time that Ernesto had become directly involved in revolutionary activities. His stay in Guatemala helped him affirm his political ideologies and also earned him the nickname Ché.
Following this, Ché moved to Mexico City, and was introduced to Cuban rebel Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl during their exile. They were planning to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Guevara agreed to serve as physician for Castro’s invasion force of 82 men, and thus began his career as a revolutionary. The invasion did not prove fruitful, but gave Guevara the direction he was looking for. He became a gifted military leader and Castro’s trusted friend.
When Cuba became independent, Guevara was officially declared a Cuban by birth. Guevara travelled the world and played a vital role in realigning Cuba with the Soviet Union. In 1961, he published La Guerra de guerrillas ( Guerrilla Warfare ), a training manual of military tactics.
Soon after, Ché’s pure socialist ideologies did not go well with the Cubans. Inciting a revolution in Bolivia proved to be unsuccessful and Castro withdrew his support to Ché. He left Cuba in 1965, to follow through with the Bolivian Revolution, but was captured a year and a half later by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed. He was 39 years old.
Ché’s untimely death and the principles he stood for made him a martyr and an idol of an entire generation not only in South and Central America, but the world over.
