Che Guevara Is Executed
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a prominent figure in the Latin American revolutionary movement, was executed in Bolivia on October 9, 1967. Born in Argentina in 1928, Guevara trained as a doctor before becoming involved in revolutionary activities across Latin America. He played a crucial role in the Cuban Revolution alongside Fidel Castro, which led to the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's government in 1959. After serving in various key roles in the Cuban government, Guevara became increasingly critical of both the United States and the Soviet Union, ultimately leaving public life to pursue revolutionary efforts elsewhere. In late 1966, he covertly entered Bolivia with the intention of sparking a broader revolution across South America. However, his guerrilla group faced swift military action from Bolivian forces, resulting in his capture and execution shortly thereafter. Following his death, Guevara's body was buried in a secret location, and it wasn't until 1997 that his remains were identified and reburied in Cuba, where he is remembered as a symbol of revolutionary struggle.
On this Page
Che Guevara Is Executed
Che Guevara Is Executed
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed in Bolivia on October 9, 1967. He was a prominent Latin American revolutionary and skilled in guerrilla warfare. Guevara played a prominent role in the Cuban revolution, through which Fidel Castro rose to power.
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born on June 14, 1928, in Rosario, Argentina, the oldest of five children in his middle-class family. In 1953 he completed his study of medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. Traveling around Latin America, Guevara took note of the poverty that seemed prevalent in that part of the world and became convinced that revolution would solve the economic problems he saw. In 1954 he was in Guatemala, which at the time was under the leadership of leftist Jacobo Arbenz, when the elected government was overthrown with help from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. This convinced Guevara that the United States would never support leftist governments. It was in Guatemala that he got his nickname “Che” (meaning friend or pal).
In late 1954 or early 1955 Guevara went to Mexico, where he met Fidel and Raul Castro. The Castro brothers had gone to Mexico after being released from prison in Cuba and were organizing other Cuban exiles into a revolutionary group to overthrow the corrupt Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista. Guevara decided to join them, and on December 2, 1956, Castro, Guevara, and 80 other armed men landed near Cabo Cruz in Cuba. All but the Castro brothers, Guevara, and nine other men were killed or captured. The survivors fled into the remote Sierra Maestra region, from which they waged guerrilla warfare against Batista's soldiers.
Guevara rose to the rank of major in Castro's army and published a book about his two years helping the Cubans to overthrow Batista, Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria (1963; translated as Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1968). He also wrote articles that were published in El Cubano Libre.
When Castro achieved victory and established a Marxist government in 1959, Guevara became a Cuban citizen and was given prominent roles in the new Cuban government. From 1961 to 1965 he served as Cuba's minister of industry and director of the national bank. Guevara was publicly critical of the United States and its involvement in underdeveloped countries. He was one of those who supported Cuba's increasingly close ties with the Soviet Union, but in 1965 his criticism of the Kremlin while visiting Algiers cost him his ministry post, and he dropped out of public life. While a member of the Castro government, Guevara also published two manuals: Guerrilla Warfare (1961), later hailed as a landmark textbook for revolutionary tactics, and Guerrilla Warfare: A Method (1963).
During the two years following his dismissal from government, Guevara spent some time in Africa with other Cubans trying to organize the Patrice Lumumba Battalion, which fought in the Congo civil war. In the fall of 1966, Guevara secretly went to Bolivia and created a guerrilla group in the Santa Cruz region. He believed that a peasant-based revolution begun there would not only topple the reigning Bolivian government, but also begin a wave of revolutions across South America. On October 9, 1967, Guevara's group was attacked by U.S.-trained Bolivian soldiers and most of them were killed. Guevara himself was wounded and captured, then executed shortly afterward.
In order to compare fingerprint records that were filed in Argentina, the soldiers cut off Guevara's hands. His body was flown to Vallegrande, where it disappeared. The Bolivian government later admitted that it took the bodies of Guevara and his followers and buried them in a secret location. In 1995 researchers began to search for Guevara's remains. After more than a year of searching, they discovered a mass grave at the Vallegrande airport that contained a skeleton with missing hands. Tests confirmed the skeleton was Guevara's. The remains were flown to Cuba on July 12, 1997, and reburied in the city of Santa Clara.