Forty Years Past Che

In 1967, while leading a small guerilla band of revolutionaries in Bolivia, he was captured and wounded by members of the Bolivian Army. He was executed a few days later on October 9, 1967. He was buried in the small village of Vallegrande, Bolivia.

Che GuevaraÂ’s body was displayed in Bolivia in October 1967

Che Guevara’s revolutionary statements and activities had made government leaders throughout Latin America nervous. U.S. president Lyndon Johnson sent men to assist in finding and eventually killing Che Guevara in Bolivia. Declassified memos and telegrams sent to the president describe the U.S. military’s training of Bolivian troops to fight the guerillas, updates on Che Guevara’s whereabouts, and confirmation of his death.  

U.S. President Johnson received daily memos and cables on Guevara

Source: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 5 

Che Guevara wrote books and manuals about guerilla warfare, and his speeches and journal writings have been translated and published in many languages.  Today at least two known revolutionary groups follow the ideology of  Che Guevara, the Zapatistas in Mexico and the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thirty years after his execution Che Guevara’s body was exhumed, sent to Cuba, and buried with a great ceremony led by Fidel Castro at Santa Clara. Cuban sculptor José Delarra designed the sculpture and the memorial complex that was innaugurated on December 28, 1988.

Today in America and elsewhere, stores near college campuses and Web sites like thechestore.com sell t-shirts, backpacks, posters and other items bearing Che Guevara’s image. (Guevara’s daughter, Aleida, a pediatrician in Cuba, would like to reign in commercially exploitive uses of his image, such as on fashion underwear, out of respect to his memory).

Photos of the handsome revolutionary are found in articles, books and Internet sites devoted to justice issues. Filmmakers have made movies about Che Guevara’s life beginning with “Che!” in 1969. “The Motorcycle Diaries” and another “Che” are two movies that were released in 2004. 

Che Guevara

Che Guevara keeps the revolutionary spirit alive 

Ariel Dorfman, a writer and activist from Chile, explained the continuing  popularity of Che Guevara this way:

 “Perhaps in these orphaned times of incessantly shifting identities and alliances, the fantasy of an adventurer who changed countries and crossed borders and broke down limits without once betraying his basic loyalties provides the restless youth of our era with an optimal combination, grounding them in a fierce center of moral gravity while simultaneously appealing to their contemporary nomadic impulse...The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience.”  

As long as there is war and oppression, people will long for a leader with the passion of the revolutionary Che Guevara.  

Photo of Che Guevara by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda

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