CHE GUEVARA
Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born in Rosario in Argentine in 1928. After studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires he worked as a doctor. While in Guatemala in 1954 he witnessed the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by an American backed military coup. Disgusted by what he saw, Guevara decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.
In 1956 Guevara, Castro and eighty other men and women arrived in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of General FulgencioBatista. This group became known as the July 26 Movement. The plan was to set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them. In the brief period between the revolutionary victory in Cuba and his assassination in 1967, the scope of Che's accomplishments is truly astonishing. His legacy includes intellectual writings on radical politics and social theory, military/guerrilla warfare strategy and tactics, diplomatic memos, books, speeches, magazine articles, letters, poetry and diaries, as well as official documents preserved in government archives.
On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia by his CIA-assisted and -directed captors.
He told the frightened soldier who was sent to execute him in the small room where Che lay, seriously wounded: “I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." The Bolivian had been told not to shoot Che in the head, because they wanted to be sure to get identifiable photos of him dead. After he was killed, and photos taken, Che's hands were chopped off and sent to Cuba as further proof that the world-famous revolutionary was dead.
In 1956 Guevara, Castro and eighty other men and women arrived in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of General FulgencioBatista. This group became known as the July 26 Movement. The plan was to set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them. In the brief period between the revolutionary victory in Cuba and his assassination in 1967, the scope of Che's accomplishments is truly astonishing. His legacy includes intellectual writings on radical politics and social theory, military/guerrilla warfare strategy and tactics, diplomatic memos, books, speeches, magazine articles, letters, poetry and diaries, as well as official documents preserved in government archives.
On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia by his CIA-assisted and -directed captors.
He told the frightened soldier who was sent to execute him in the small room where Che lay, seriously wounded: “I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." The Bolivian had been told not to shoot Che in the head, because they wanted to be sure to get identifiable photos of him dead. After he was killed, and photos taken, Che's hands were chopped off and sent to Cuba as further proof that the world-famous revolutionary was dead.
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