Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHE GUEVARA RETURNS TO
ARGENTINA, 1961
E
rnesto Guevara grew up in a prominent if slightly decadent family
in Córdoba Province. His playmates later told of a childhood filled
with defiant nonconformism that only privilege could support but also
one plagued by debilitating asthma. Young Guevara took little direct
interest in politics, except that he approved of Juan Perón's nationalistic
stance against the foreign interests. He passed his medical exams in 1953
and took off on a motorcycle trip through Latin America with a friend.
Guevara's travel experiences stimulated his political views, as he wit-
nessed the CIA-assisted military counterrevolution of 1954 in Guatemala.
He next traveled to Mexico City, where he met the Cuban lawyer
and political dissident Fidel Castro. When Perón fell from power in
September 1955, Guevara was training with the Cuban revolutionaries
and answering to “Che,” the nickname his Cuban comrades used with
him. Landing in the mountains of Cuba, Guevara gained legendary status
as a guerrilla fighter. When Castro came to power, Guevara proved to
be an effective spokesman for the revolution.
Under the circumstances, Argentine president Arturo Frondizi could
not pass up the opportunity to interview Guevara, who had just arrived
in Uruguay to attend an inter-American economic conference. Guevara
secretly entered Argentina on August 19, 1961, drove to the Casa Rosada
in the presidential limousine, dined with the president, rode secretly
through the streets of Buenos Aires to visit an ailing aunt, and departed
before nightfall. Guevara never again set foot in his native country.
That evening, a bomb blew out the front door of the apartment
house in which one of Guevara's uncles lived. The man told the press
that unfortunately, he had not seen his famous nephew. “I'm going out
to dinner now with some friends,” he added, “if a bomb hasn't been
placed under the hood of my car.”
Source of quoted material:
Anderson, Jon Lee.
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary
Life
(New York: Grove Press, 1997).
1996, III: 192). The officers' answer was apparently persuasive, and
Illia walked out of the Casa Rosada to return to his life as a country
doctor in Córdoba. The generals had come to the conclusion that only
a military government without resorting to the constitutional pretense
