Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHE GUEVARA
Of all the romantics and adventurers to pass through Bolivia, none has matched the iconic
status of
Che Guevara
, the Argentine-born hero of the Cuban revolution who was killed in
the backwoods southwest of Santa Cruz while attempting to launch a continent-wide guer-
rilla war. Born in the Argentine town of Rosario to upper middle-class parents on May 14,
1928 (though his birth was registered a month later to conceal the fact that he was con-
ceived before his parents were married), Ernesto Guevara de la Serna studied
medicine
at
the University of Buenos Aires and qualified in 1953, but never practised as a doctor in his
homeland: he preferred life on the road as a self-styled vagabond and adventurer, travelling
virtually penniless throughout Latin America both during and after his studies, including a
brief period in Bolivia during the revolutionary upheaval of the early 1950s.
A MEETING OF MINDS
By 1954 his travels brought him to
Guatemala
, where he witnessed the CIA-backed mil-
itary overthrow of the progressive Arbenz regime, an event that confirmed both his grow-
ing commitment to revolutionary Marxism and his fervent opposition to US imperialism.
It was also here that he was given the nickname
Che
, after his typically Argentine habit of
peppering his speech with the Guaraní-derived word, used to mean “hey you” or “mate”.
From Guatemala he headed to Mexico City, where he met
Fidel Castro
, an exiled Cuban
rebel planning to return to his country to launch a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the dic-
tator Fulgencio Batista. Che was signed up as the expedition's doctor, but over the next two
years of fighting, he proved himself amongst the most ruthless, determined, fearless, polit-
ically radical and tactically astute of the guerrilla commanders. By the time Fidel Castro
took power in January 1959, Che was one of his closest associates. For several years he
served
Cuba
as president of the National Bank, roving ambassador and Minister of In-
dustry. His mixture of good looks, incendiary rhetoric and self-sacrifice made him appear
the living embodiment of the revolutionary “New Man”.
FROM CUBA TO THE CONGO
However, his radicalism and his continued insistence on promoting revolution in other
countries proved a liability to Castro's Soviet allies, who feared being drawn into a war
with the US and were suspicious of Che's Maoist leanings. Che saw the Cuban revolution
as the first step in a continent-wide revolution against
US imperial control
, and believed
the guerrilla strategy used in Cuba - whereby a small rural
foco
or nucleus of determined
fighters could radicalize the peasantry and create the conditions for revolution, as detailed
in his book
Guerra de Guerrillas
- was a scientific model that could be exported all over
the world. In 1965 he formally resigned his Cuban citizenship, ministerial position and
rank of
commandante
, left his family behind and set off to spread revolution. After an un-
successful stint leading a Cuban guerrilla contingent supporting rebels in the
Congo
, he
