Che Guevara (1928 - 1967) was an Argentine physician, Marxist revolutionary, author, and guerrilla leader who became a central figure of the Cuban Revolution. [1] After joining Fidel Castro's insurgency in 1956 he rose to commander, and following the revolution's victory held senior positions in the Cuban government, including president of the national bank and minister of industry. [2] He left Cuba to pursue armed revolution elsewhere and was captured and executed by the Bolivian army in 1967. [1]
Early life and travels
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born on 14 June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, into a middle-class family of leftist sympathies. He suffered from severe asthma from childhood and studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, qualifying as a doctor in 1953. [1]
Two long journeys through South America, the first by motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado, brought him into contact with rural poverty and are generally treated as decisive in his political formation. His notes from the first trip were published posthumously as The Motorcycle Diaries. [3]
In Guatemala in 1954 he witnessed the overthrow of the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in a coup supported by the United States, which confirmed his conviction that armed struggle was required for change in Latin America. He acquired the nickname Che, an Argentine conversational interjection, among his Cuban comrades. [2]
The Cuban Revolution
In Mexico City Guevara met Fidel and Raul Castro and joined the expedition that sailed on the yacht Granma to Cuba in December 1956. Enlisted initially as the group's physician, he proved an effective combatant and organiser and was promoted to comandante, commanding a column in the Sierra Maestra. His capture of Santa Clara at the end of 1958 contributed directly to the collapse of Fulgencio Batista's government. [1]
After the revolutionary victory in January 1959 Guevara was appointed to oversee the tribunals at La Cabaña fortress, which tried and executed members of the former regime; the number of executions and the summary nature of the proceedings remain a central charge against him. He then served as president of the National Bank of Cuba and as minister of industries, directing nationalisation and the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet bloc, and represented Cuba at the United Nations in 1964. [2]
Writings and theory
Guevara wrote on guerrilla warfare, economics, and revolutionary ethics. Guerrilla Warfare (1961) set out the foco theory, that a small mobile vanguard could itself create the conditions for a general insurrection. He also argued for moral rather than material incentives in socialist production, placing him at odds with Soviet orthodoxy. [3]
Congo, Bolivia and death
In 1965 Guevara left Cuba to export revolution, leading a Cuban contingent supporting rebels in the Congo; the mission failed within months. He then moved secretly to Bolivia, where he attempted to build a guerrilla base in the south-east. The campaign attracted little peasant support and was tracked by the Bolivian army with assistance from the United States. [1]
He was captured on 8 October 1967 and shot the following day at La Higuera. His body was buried in an unmarked grave; the remains were located and returned to Cuba in 1997 for reburial at Santa Clara. [2]
Legacy
Alberto Korda's 1960 photograph Guerrillero Heroico became one of the most reproduced images of the century. In Cuba Guevara is a state-sanctioned national figure, and across parts of Latin America he remains a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance. [4]
Critics point to his role in the post-revolutionary tribunals, his support for one-party rule, and the failure of his insurgent theory, while supporters emphasise his personal asceticism and his internationalism.
