(Spanish Ernesto Che Guevara; full name: Ernesto Rafael Guevara de La Serna; 1928 - 1967) - legendary revolutionary, Latin American statesman, known as " Commandant of the Cuban Revolution"(Spanish Сomandante - “commander”).
In addition to Latin America, Guevara also operated in the Republic of the Congo and other countries (full data is classified to this day). The nickname “Che” emphasized his Argentine origin (the interjection “Che” is a very common address in).
In 2000, Time magazine included Che Guevara in its lists of “20 Heroes and Icons” and “Heroes and Idols of the 20th Century.” (English TIME 100: Heroes & Icons of the 20th Century).
In 2013 (the 85th anniversary of Che's birth), his manuscripts were included in the UNESCO Documentary Heritage List as part of the Memory of the World program.
Childhood and youth
E. Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the city (Argentina) in the family of architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900 - 1987) and Celia De La Serna. Ernesto's parents were Argentine Creoles, and his father's family included Irish and Californian Creoles.
After getting married, Celia inherited a yerba mate plantation in northeastern Argentina, in the province of Misiones (Spanish: Misiones). In an effort to improve the lives of workers, her husband displeased local planters, and the family was forced to move to Rosario, establishing a small factory there for processing yerba mate. The future legendary Che was born there.
In addition to Ernesto (in childhood he was affectionately called Tete, in the photo there is a boy in a shirt), there were four younger children in the family: sisters Celia and Anna Maria, brothers Roberto and Juan Martin. The parents gave all their children higher education: their daughters became architects, Roberto became a lawyer, and Juan Martin became a designer.
In 1930, 2-year-old Tete suffered a severe attack of bronchial asthma; subsequently, attacks of suffocation haunted him throughout his life. In order to restore the health of the first-born, the family, having sold the estate, purchased “Villa Nydia” (Spanish: Villa Nydia) in the province of Cordoba (Spanish: Cordoba), moving to a region with a healthier mountain climate (2 thousand above sea level). The father worked as a construction contractor, and the mother took care of a sick boy. With the change in climate, the baby’s well-being did not improve, so Ernesto found it difficult to speak every word.
For the first 2 years, Ernesto studied at home due to daily attacks, then he studied at a high school in Alta Gracia (Spanish: Alta Gracia). Having learned to read at the age of 4, Ernesto became passionate about reading, a love that lasted his entire life. The boy enthusiastically read the works of Marx, Engels, Freud, which were available in abundance in his father's library (there was a rich library in his parents' house - several thousand books). The young man also adored poetry, even wrote poetry himself; subsequently, the collected works of Che Guevara (2 and 9 volumes) were published in Cuba. At the age of 10, Ernesto became interested in chess, and first became interested in Cuba when Capablanca, a famous Cuban chess player, came to visit.
Despite his illness, Tate was seriously involved in rugby, football, horse riding, golf, gliding, and also loved cycling.
At the age of 13, Ernesto entered State College. Dean Funes (Spanish: Dean Funes) of the city, graduating in 1945, then entered the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.
During his youth, Ernesto was deeply impressed by the Spanish emigrants who fled to Argentina from repression during the civil war, as well as by the chain of political crises in his native country, the apotheosis of which was the establishment of the “left-fascist” dictatorship of J. Peron. Such events completely confirmed in the young man contempt for parliamentary games, hatred for military dictators and the army, which is a means of achieving dirty political goals, but most of all - for American imperialism, which is ready to commit any crime for the sake of money.
Formation of political views
The civil war that broke out in Spain caused enormous public outcry in Argentina. Ernesto's parents were ardent opponents of the regime: his father was a member of an organization operating against the Peron dictatorship, and Celia was arrested more than once for participating in anti-government demonstrations in Cordoba. They even made bombs for demonstrators in their home.
Ernesto himself, while studying at the University, was very little interested in politics; he wanted to become a doctor, dreaming of easing human suffering. At first, the young man was interested exclusively in diseases of the respiratory tract, because this was closest to him, but later he became interested in one of the most terrible diseases of humanity - leprosy (leprosy).
At the end of 1948, Ernesto made his first big trip by bicycle through the northern provinces of Argentina, during which he sought to become better acquainted with the life of the poorest segments of the population and the remnants of the indigenous Indian tribes, doomed to extinction by the then political regime. On this trip, he realized that the entire society in which he lived needed treatment, and realized his powerlessness in this matter as a physician.
In 1951, after passing his exams, Ernesto went on a longer trip with his friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist. Friends stopped for the night in a field or in the forest, earning their living by doing all sorts of odd jobs. The young people visited southern Argentina (according to some sources, Guevara met there), Florida and Miami.
In Peru, travelers became acquainted with life and, mercilessly exploited by landowners and stifling hunger with coca leaves. In the city, Ernesto read books about the city in the local library. The friends spent several days on the ruins of the ancient Inca city in Peru; in all countries they always visited leprosariums, took a lot of photographs and kept diaries.
Upon returning from a 7-month trip in August 1952, Ernesto firmly decided on the main goal of his life: to alleviate the suffering of people. He immediately began to prepare for the exams and began his thesis work. In March 1953, Ernesto Guevara received a diploma as a surgeon, a specialist in skin diseases. Avoiding military service, he gave himself an asthma attack by taking an ice bath and was declared unfit for military service. With a brand new diploma as a dermatologist, Ernesto decided to devote himself to the work of a practicing doctor for 10 years and headed to the Venezuelan leper colony in. Passionate about archeology, interested in the stories of friends about the ancient architectural monuments of the Mayan civilization and the ongoing revolutionary events in Guatemala, Guevara and like-minded people hastily headed there (his travel notes about the ancient monuments of the Maya and Incas were written there).
In Guatemala, Guevara worked as a doctor during the reign of Socialist President Arbenz.
Sharing Marxist beliefs and thoroughly studying the works of Lenin, Ernesto, however, did not join the Communist Party for fear of losing his position as a medical worker. Then he was friends with Ilda Gadea (Marxist Indian school), who later became his wife, who introduced Ernesto to Lieutenant Antonio Lopez Fernandez (Nico) - Fidel Castro's closest supporter.
On June 17, 1954, the armed groups of Castillo Armas (Spanish: Carlos Castillo Armas; President of Guatemala from 1954 to 1957) invaded Guatemala from Honduras, carrying out executions of supporters of the Arbenz government. The bombing of Guatemalan cities began. Together with other members of the Patriotic Youth of Labor organization, Ernesto carried out guard duty during the bombings and participated in the transportation of weapons, risking his life. Guevara was included in the list of “dangerous communists” to be eliminated after the overthrow of Arbenz. The Argentine ambassador offered him refuge in the embassy, where Che took refuge with a group of Arbenz supporters, and after his overthrow (not without the active support of the American intelligence services), Ernesto left the country and moved to Mexico City, where from September 1954 he worked in the city hospital.
"Comandante" of the Cuban Revolution
At the end of June 1955, Cuban revolutionaries gathered in Mexico City and began preparing an expedition to Cuba, and Fidel Castro in the United States raised funds for it among Cuban emigrants.
On July 9, 1955, at a safe house where the upcoming military operations in Oriente were discussed, a meeting between Fidel and Che took place. Fidel said that Che "was the most mature and advanced revolutionary among others." Soon, Ernesto, impressed by Castro as an “exceptional man,” did not hesitate to join the emerging squad as a doctor. The expedition was preparing for a serious struggle in the name of the liberation of the Cuban people.
Nickname " Che“, which Guevara was proud of until the end of his life, he acquired precisely in this detachment for the characteristic manner of using this exclamation in conversation for a native of Argentina.
Ernesto Che Guevara first served as a doctor in the detachment, and then headed one of the brigades, receiving the highest rank of “comandante” (major).
He trained the group, taught how to make injections and bandages, and apply splints. Soon the rebel camp was dispersed by the police. On June 22, 1956, Fidel Castro was arrested in Mexico City, then, as a result of an ambush arranged at a safe house, Che and a group of comrades were also arrested. Guevara spent about 2 months in prison. Fidel was preparing to sail to Cuba.
On the stormy night of November 25, 1956, in Tuxpan, a detachment of 82 people boarded the Granma, which headed for Cuba. Arriving on the Cuban shores on December 2, 1956, the Granma ran aground. The fighters reached the shore in shoulder-deep water, boats and planes subordinate to Batista rushed to the landing site, and Castro’s detachment came under fire from 35 thousand armed soldiers, tanks, coast guard vessels, 10 warships, and several fighter planes. The group spent a long time making their way through the mangroves of the swampy coast. Che bandaged his comrades, whose legs were bleeding from the hard campaign. Almost half of the detachment’s fighters were killed under enemy fire and many were taken prisoner.
Fidel said, addressing the survivors: “The enemy will not be able to destroy us, we will fight and still win this war.” Cuban peasants sympathized with the members of the detachment, feeding them and sheltering them in their homes.
The disease periodically choked Che, but he stubbornly walked through the mountains in full equipment. A tough fighter with an iron will, he was given strength by his ardent devotion to revolutionary ideas.
In the Sierra Maestra mountains (Spanish: Sierra Maestra), Guevara, who suffered from asthma, sometimes rested in peasant huts so as not to delay the advance of the column. He never parted with his books, pen and notepad; he read a lot, sacrificing minutes of sleep to write the next entry in his diary.
On March 13, 1957, the Havana student organization rebelled, attempting to take over the university, the radio station, and the Presidential Palace. Most of the rebels died in clashes with the government army. In mid-March, Frank País (Spanish: Frank Isaac País Garcia, 1934 - 1957), a Cuban revolutionary and organizer of the underground movement, sent reinforcements of 50 citizens to Fidel Castro. The reinforcements were not ready for long hikes in the mountains, so it was decided to begin training volunteers. To the squad " barbudos» Fidel (Spanish: Barbudos - “bearded people”), who grew beards during the march, were joined by volunteers, and weapons, money, food and medicine were delivered to them by Cuban emigrants.
Che established himself as a talented, decisive, brave and successful brigade commander. Demanding, but fair to the soldiers subordinate to him and merciless to his enemies, Ernesto Guevara won several victories over units of the government army. The battle for the city of Santa Clara (Spanish: Santa Clara), an important strategic point near Havana, predetermined the victory of the Cuban revolution. Beginning on December 28, 1958, the battle ended on December 31 with the capture of the capital of Cuba - the Revolution won, the revolutionary army entered Havana.
Rise to power in Cuba
With F. Castro coming to power, persecution of his political opponents began in Cuba. In Santiago de Cuba, after its occupation by the rebels, on January 12, 1959, a show trial was held of 72 police officers and other persons accused of “war crimes.” Everyone was shot. The “Partisan Law” abolished all legal guarantees in relation to the accused, “Che” personally instructed the judges: “They are all a gang of criminals, and we must act according to conviction, without making red tape with trials.” Ernesto Che Guevara headed the appeal tribunal and, as commandant of the prison, personally ordered executions in the Havana prison fortress of La Cabana (Spanish: La Cabana, full name: Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana). After F. Castro's adherents came to power in Cuba, more than 8 thousand people were shot.
Che, the second person (after Fidel) in the new government, was given Cuban citizenship in February 1959, entrusted with the most important government posts: Guevara headed the National Institute for Agrarian Reform, achieving a significant increase in its effectiveness; served as Minister of Industry; served as President of the National Bank of Cuba. Che, who had no experience in public administration and economics, quickly studied and established affairs in the areas entrusted to him.
In 1959, after visiting Japan, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Yugoslavia, Guevara concluded a historic agreement with the USSR on oil imports and sugar exports, ending the Cuban economy's dependence on the United States. Later, having visited the Soviet Union, he was impressed by the successes achieved there in building socialism, however, he did not entirely approve of the policies pursued by the then leadership, even then seeing a rollback to imperialism. As it turned out, Che was right in many ways.
Ernesto Che Guevara - Bleader and inspirer of the world revolutionary movement
Che was fascinated by the revolutionary movement all over the world, he wanted to be its ideological inspirer. To do this, he attended a meeting of the UN General Assembly; became the initiator of the Conference of 3 Continents, designed to implement a program of liberation cooperation in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America; published books on guerrilla warfare tactics and the revolutionary struggle in Cuba.
Ultimately, for the sake of the world revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara abandoned everything else, and in 1965, he left all government posts, renounced Cuban citizenship, dropped a few lines to his family, and disappeared from public life. Then there were many rumors about his fate: they said that he was either in a madhouse somewhere in the Russian outback, or died somewhere in Latin America.
But in the spring of 1965, Guevara arrived in the Republic of the Congo, where fighting was then taking place. Che had great hopes for the Congo; he believed that the vast jungle-covered territories offered excellent opportunities for organizing guerrilla warfare. More than 100 Cuban volunteers took part in the military operation. But from the very beginning, the venture in the Congo was plagued by failures. The rebel forces were defeated in several battles. Guevara was forced to stop his actions and leave for the Cuban embassy in Tanzania. His diary about those events in the Congo begins: “This is a story of complete failure.”
After Tanzania, the Comandante went to Eastern Europe, but Castro persuaded him to secretly return to Cuba to prepare for the creation of a revolutionary center in Latin America. In 1966, Che led the Bolivian guerrilla war.
Bolivian communists bought land specifically for organizing bases where Guevara led the training of partisans. In April 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara secretly entered the territory with a small detachment, winning several victories over government forces. Alarmed by the appearance of the “furious Che” and guerrillas in his country, Bolivian President Rene Barrientos (Spanish: Rene Barrientos) turned to American intelligence services for help. It was decided to use CIA forces against Che Guevara.
The comandante's guerrilla detachment, numbering almost 50 people, acted as the "Army of National Liberation of Bolivia" (Spanish: "Ejеrcito de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia"). In September 1967, by order of the government, leaflets were distributed in Bolivia about a $4,200 bounty on the head of a revolutionary.
There was perhaps no person at that time whom the CIA feared more than Che, who had incredible charisma and was obsessed with the idea of revolution in Latin America.
Captivity and execution
On October 7, 1967, Bolivian special military units controlled by the CIA learned from informants about the location of Che's detachment - the Quebrada del Yuro gorge (Spanish: Quebrada del Yuro) near.
Using the most modern American reconnaissance technology, they discovered and surrounded a partisan detachment in the vicinity of the village of Vallegrande (Spanish: Vallegrande). While trying to break through the encirclement, a bullet hit Che's weapon, the unarmed commander was wounded and captured on October 8.
Jon Lee Anderson, an American journalist and biographer of Che Guevara, described his arrest this way: the wounded Che, whom one of the partisans was trying to carry off, shouted: “Don’t shoot! I, Ernesto Che Guevara, am worth more alive than dead.”
The partisans were tied up and escorted to an adobe hut in the nearby village of La Higuera (Spanish: La Higuera, “The Fig Tree”). According to one of the guards, Che, wounded twice in the leg, tired, covered in dirt, in torn clothes, looked terrible. However, he "held his head high, his eyes never lowered." Bolivian Rear Admiral Horacio Ugartech, who interrogated him right before his execution, was spat in the face by “Che.” Che Guevara spent the night of October 8-9 on the clay floor of a hut, next to the bodies of 2 killed partisans.
On October 9 at 12:30 an order came from the command: “Destroy Senor Guevara.” Che's executioner volunteered to be a certain Mario Teran (Spanish: Mario Teran), a 31-year-old sergeant in the Bolivian army, who wanted to avenge his friends killed in battles with Guevara's detachment. Teran was given orders to aim carefully and make it appear as if Che had been killed in battle.
In 30 min. Before the execution, F. Rodriguez (CIA employee, colonel of the US Armed Forces) asked Che where the other rebels were, but he refused to answer. The prisoner was taken out of the house so that Bolivian soldiers could take photographs with him. A few minutes before the execution, one of the guards asked Che if he thought about the immortality of his soul, to which he replied: “I only think about the immortality of the revolution.” Then he said to Teran: “Shoot me, you coward! Know that you will only kill a person!” The executioner hesitated, then shot 9 times. Che Guevara's heart stopped at 13:10 local time.
The body of the legendary Che was tied to the skids of a helicopter and thus taken to Vallegrande, where it was put on public display. After a military surgeon amputated Che's hands, on October 11, 1967, soldiers of the Bolivian army secretly buried the bodies of Guevara and 6 more of his comrades, carefully concealing the burial place. On October 15, F. Castro informed the world about the death of Che, which was a heavy blow for the world revolutionary movement. Local residents began to consider Guevara a saint, turning to him in prayers with the words: “San Ernesto de La Higuera.”
The enemies' fear of Che (even of the dead) was so great that the house where the commandant was shot was razed to the ground.
In the summer of 1995, the grave of the legendary Che was discovered near the airport in Vallegrande. But only in June 1997, Cuban and Argentine scientists managed to find and identify the remains of Che Guevara, which were transported to Cuba and buried with magnificent honors on October 17, 1997 in the mausoleum of Santa Clara (Spanish: Santa Clara).
The Latin American revolution is the goal that Ernesto Che Guevara set for himself. For the sake of his great goal, he sacrificed his family, friends, and associates. The greatest romantic, Che was sure that it should be started by a person who was intimately familiar with the peculiarities of waging guerrilla warfare. Che did not see a more suitable candidate than himself.
Che considered himself a soldier of the world revolution, in the necessity of which he always sincerely believed. Guevara passionately wished happiness to the peoples of Latin America and strove for the triumph of social justice on his native continent. In his last letter, he wrote to his children: "Your father was a man who lived according to his convictions and always acted according to his conscience and his views."
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“Dear old people! I again feel the ribs of Rocinante in my heels, again, dressed in armor, I set off on my way. About ten years ago I wrote you another farewell letter. As far as I remember, then I regretted that I was not a better soldier and a better doctor; the second doesn’t interest me anymore, but I didn’t turn out to be such a bad soldier. Basically nothing has changed since then, except that I have become much more conscious, my Marxism has taken root in me and has been purified. I believe that armed struggle is the only way out for peoples fighting for their liberation, and I am consistent in my views. Many people would call me an adventurer, and that's true. But I’m just a special kind of adventurer, the kind that risks their own skin to prove that they’re right. Maybe I'll try this one last time. I am not looking for such an end, but it is possible if we logically proceed from the calculation of possibilities. And if that happens, please accept my last hug. I loved you deeply, but I didn’t know how to express my love. I am too direct in my actions and I think that sometimes I was misunderstood. Besides, it was not easy to understand me, but this time, trust me. So, the determination that I have cultivated with the passion of an artist will force frail legs and tired lungs to act. I will achieve my goal. Sometimes remember this modest condottiere of the 20th century. Kiss Celia, Roberto, Juan Martin and Pototin, Beatriz, everyone.
Your prodigal and incorrigible son Ernesto hugs you tightly.”
The fight is calling
Spring 1965 Ernesto Che Guevara resigned as Minister of Industry of Cuba. After six years spent as a government official, the Comandante decided to return to the revolutionary struggle.
In April 1965, Che arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he joined the rebel struggle against the government. However, the commandant did not have a good relationship with the leader of the movement Laurent-Désiré Kabilo th, and after a series of failures, Che Guevara was forced to curtail the operation a few months after it began.
The failure in Africa did not force him to completely abandon revolutionary activities. After several months of deliberation, Che Guevara decided to return to Latin America.
The Comandante decided to concentrate his forces in Bolivia, where in 1964 he came to power as a result of a coup Rene Barrientos. The pro-American dictator harbored Nazi criminals on his territory and willingly used their skills to suppress the labor movement and leftist parties.
Partisans against the CIA and the Nazis
Che Guevara decided that the situation in Bolivia was perfectly suitable for an armed uprising. At the end of 1966, the base of the partisan detachment in Bolivia began to operate. In March 1967, the National Liberation Army of Bolivia takes its first battle with government forces.
Rene Barrientos was greatly frightened by the appearance of Che Guevara, and requested help from the United States. The CIA brought the best counterinsurgency specialists to the country. The Nazis were also involved in the hunt for Che, including, according to some sources, the “Butcher of Lyon” Klaus Barbier.
Che Guevara's detachment successfully operated in mountainous areas, but he failed to solve the main task - to give the movement mass appeal. The Bolivian army managed to isolate the detachment. Local peasants were wary and even hostile towards the partisans.
On August 31, 1967, the partisans suffered a serious defeat, suffering heavy losses. Among the dead were Che's closest associate "Joaquin" - a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Juan Vitalio Acuña Nunez, as well as the legendary “Tanya the Partisan” - Aide Tamara Bunke Bider.
Last battle and captivity
In September the partisans again suffered heavy losses. Che, however, remained himself under these conditions - despite the attacks of asthma, which he suffered for many years, the commandant encouraged his comrades and provided medical assistance to both them and the captured soldiers of the Bolivian army, whom he then released.
At the beginning of October, the informant Ciro Bustosa gave government troops the location of Che Guevara's detachment. On October 8, 1967, special forces surrounded and attacked a camp in the Yuro Gorge area. In a bloody battle, Che was wounded, his rifle was smashed by a bullet, but the special forces managed to capture him only when the pistol ran out of cartridges.
The wounded Che Guevara was taken to the village school building in the town of La Higuera. Approaching the building, the revolutionary drew attention to the wounded soldiers of the Bolivian army and offered to help them as a doctor, but was refused.
Witnesses from among the soldiers of the Bolivian army said that the wounded Che Guevara looked terrible, but at the same time he behaved steadfastly and with dignity. He did not answer the officers’ questions, but communicated only with the soldiers.
He even managed to talk to a local teacher Julia Cortez. Pointing to the poor condition of the school building, the comandante noted that money was being spent on Mercedes for officials in the capital: “This is what we are fighting against!”
Who gave the order?
And at this time the fate of the captured revolutionary was being decided. It is known that the Bolivian authorities held consultations with Washington.
CIA Agent Felix Rodriguez, a direct participant in the events, however, assured that the United States wanted to take Che Guevara to Panama to subject him to interrogation, and the Bolivian leader Rene Barrientos insisted on immediate execution.
On the afternoon of October 9, Rodriguez received orders from the capital. The document signed by Barrientos read: “Proceed with the destruction of Señor Guevara.”
Representatives of the Bolivian command ordered that Che Guevara be shot so that they could then claim that he was killed in battle.
A 31-year-old man was chosen as the executioner. Mario Teran, a Bolivian army sergeant who allegedly wanted revenge on Che Guevara for the deaths of his friends.
“I know: you came to kill me”
“Allegedly” - because Teran himself then repeatedly changed his testimony regarding the events of October 9.
It is known for sure that at the moment when Teran entered the room where Che Guevara was, his hands were shaking.
Che, seeing what was happening to the executioner, grinned and threw it in his face: “I know: you came to kill me. Shoot. Do it. Shoot me, you coward! You will kill the man!”
Teran fired nine bullets from a semi-automatic rifle at the revolutionary. Only the fourth or fifth shot was fatal, hitting Che in the chest.
The body of the shot Guevara was tied to the skids of a helicopter and taken to the neighboring village of Vallegrande, where it was displayed to the press and local residents. The hands were amputated and placed in a vessel with formaldehyde to confirm the identity of the murdered person using fingerprints.
The fugitive minister conveyed details of the execution to Cuba
And then something happened that the executioners did not expect. Bolivian peasants, previously wary of Che, looking at the body of the defeated revolutionary, who sacrificed his life in the struggle for a better life for them, saw in him a resemblance to the crucified Christ.
After a short period of time, the deceased Che became a saint for local residents, to whom they turn with prayers, asking for help.
The remains of Che Guevara and his associates were buried secretly, and the burial place remained a secret for three decades.
In contrast to the circumstances of Che’s death, Cuba learned about them in full detail a year later. Fled to Cuba in 1968 Bolivian Interior Minister Antonio Arguedas, who delivered Che’s diaries and hands severed after death to Havana.
Cuban doctors gave Che Guevara's executioner sight
Dictator Rene Barrientos died in April 1969 in a helicopter crash. Death soon overtook several other people involved in Che's death. However, CIA agent Rodriguez and executioner Teran escaped death.
A completely fantastic story happened to the latter. In his old age, Che's killer began to have vision problems, and in 2006 he took advantage of Cuba's free eye treatment program. Cuban doctors working in Bolivia performed cataract surgery on Teran. Of course, Teran was treated under a false name, and everything became known after a letter of gratitude from the executioner’s son arrived in Cuba.
The program for treating Bolivians by Cuban doctors became possible after the victory of a socialist in the presidential elections in Bolivia Eva Morales, in whose office there hangs a portrait of Che Guevara.
“It cannot be erased from history”
In 1995, the Bolivian General Mario Vargas said that in 1967 he participated in the burial of the Comandante, and indicated a place near the runway of the Vallegrande airfield.
With the permission of the authorities, search work began. Only two years later, in 1997, human remains were found, among which were the remains of a body with amputated arms.
Back in 1988, in Cuba, in the city of Santa Clara, the Mausoleum of Che Guevara was opened.
On October 17, 1997, Ernesto Che Guevara and six of his associates were solemnly buried in the mausoleum.
At the ceremony Fidel Castro said: “Why do they think that if they kill him, he will cease to exist as a fighter? Today it is found in every place where there is a reason for protection. He cannot be erased from history; he has become a symbol for all the poor of this world.”
Che himself said this: “My defeat will not mean that it was impossible to win. Many have failed in their efforts to reach the summit of Everest, and in the end Everest was defeated.”
Name: Ernesto Che Guevara
Age: 39 years
Place of Birth: Rosario, Argentina
A place of death: La Higuera, Bolivia
Activity: revolutionary, commander of the Cuban Revolution
Family status: was married
Che Guevara - biography
The Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara received the most important assignment for the rest of his short life - he was the commander of the revolution in Cuba.
Childhood years, Che Guevara's family
Ernesto was born in the Argentine city of Rosario. The father was an ordinary architect, the mother was a simple girl from a family of planters. The family did not live in one place, and therefore the boy graduated from college in Cordoba and received higher education in another place - in Buenos Aires. Ernesto firmly decided to become a doctor. The future revolutionary has his own biography, as he said, so he did, he became a surgeon and dermatologist. But the young man had an amazing range of interests.
He is not only a doctor, he is a great humanitarian. He is well known to Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas and Cervantes, and Tolstoy. He studied the works of Lenin as well. Bakunin and Friedrich Engels did not remain aloof from his inquisitive mind. He went further, learned and was fluent in French, and knew a lot by heart.
Guevara traveler
Ernesto traveled a lot. Along the way, while working on a cargo ship, he visited British Guiana and Trinidad. Moving under his own power, using a bicycle and a moped, Guevara visits other countries. He traveled through Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. The future revolutionary was still gaining experience and in the meantime defended his diploma by writing a paper on allergies.
Independent practice
The young surgeon went to work, as circumstances turned out, in Guatemala. A war broke out in the republic; the Nicaraguan army invaded its territory. The president was replaced by another ruler as soon as the previous one abdicated power. From that moment on, the military biography of the Argentinean Che Guevara began. He actively helped the residents of the republic: transported weapons, put out fires. For this, the opponents of the socialists who came to power subjected Ernesto to repression.
The Argentine embassy intervened, and from there he left safely for Mexico City. I tried to become a journalist in a foreign country - it didn’t work out, then a photographer, a guard at a book publishing house. Guevara got married, but it became even more difficult, since his unstable work brought the same unstable earnings. When the city hospital announced a competition for a vacant position, he was glad that he found a job in the allergy department.
Revolutionary biography
Revolutionaries from Cuba began to come to Mexico City, and one Cuban friend offered to take part in the upcoming military actions, for this it was necessary to go to the Caribbean islands. Ernesto could not refuse such an offer. Soon he became very close to Raul and finally decided to help the Cubans as a doctor. But Fidel recognized his comrade-in-arms’ enormous knowledge in revolutionary matters. The revolutionaries experienced many difficulties; following a denunciation from a provocateur, Fidel and Ernesto were arrested. Cultural figures and supporters of Che Guevara and Castro achieved their release.
Having assembled a detachment, they sailed to Cuba, but were shipwrecked, came under air attack, dozens were captured, and half of the detachment died. The survivors managed to hide in the mountains and receive help from local peasants. There were first victories over government troops, there was a fight against malaria, which Ernesto also caught. While fighting the disease, Guevara wrote a diary in moments of enlightenment. The detachment began to be replenished with new volunteers,
Che became a major and received 75 armed men under his command. The states provided all possible support to the partisans and reported in their printed publications about the actions of the underground fighters. The Comandante began publishing the newspaper Free Cuba, on the pages of which he launched propaganda and educational work. At first, the rebels wrote all the articles in the newspaper by hand, but later they managed to mechanize this process.
Victory March
The partisans began to descend from the mountains into the valleys, and the urban communists received support from former underground fighters. To attract peasants, an agrarian reform was carried out, and landowners' lands were liquidated. The rebels won victory after victory as they advanced through Cuban cities, displacing Batista's hated army.
Che Guevara - biography of personal life
After the victory, Ernesto received Cuban citizenship, the posts of President of the National Bank and Minister of Industry. Actively traveled across countries and continents. The first time Che Guevara married a friend of his youth, who came to Mexico for him. There were no children in the marriage; the leader of the revolution had a strong passion for military operations and the partisan movement.
Ernesto married for the second time to a woman who shared his views and went with him throughout the revolutionary path, Aleida March. Four children were born from this marriage. Ernesto’s hot nature demanded new trends in love, so all his women can be put in the following row:
Cousin Carmen, who attracted the teenager with her dancing,
a girl from a rich family, Maria, whose family did not want to let a tramp in,
married to Ilda Acosta, the eldest daughter Ildida was born, four years later the couple separated,
revolutionary Aleida March, with whom four children were born,
partisan Tanya is the revolutionary’s last love.
Years before death and death
Che Guevara is developing active government activities, signing agreements on cooperation and trade relations with other countries, in particular with the USSR. Friendly relations with the Soviet Union were confirmed by the fact that the Cuban leader was nearby during the celebration of the October Revolution, standing on the podium of the Mausoleum. His military biography does not end there. In 1965, Guevara went to the Congo to pass on his experience in waging insurgent warfare to local guerrillas, but his goals were not achieved.
And the leader himself again became infected with malaria, aggravated by asthma, attacks of which had tormented him since childhood. He was treated in a sanatorium in Czechoslovakia and simultaneously hatched a plan for a new guerrilla war. Such a campaign in Bolivia was suppressed by supporters from the United States of America. 11 months of struggle did not produce positive results; Guevara and a small detachment were surrounded, there were long questions and inquiries. As soon as the order to shoot the Cuban rebel was received, the sentence was immediately carried out.
The corpse of the murdered man was shown to journalists, having previously amputated the revolutionary’s hands. The fingerprints were supposed to be the official confirmation of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara. Then they held a secret mass burial. Only in 1997 were the remains found, transferred to Cuba and buried with honors. At the place where the Argentinean by origin and Cuban in spirit was buried, there is now a Mausoleum.
Ernesto Che Guevara (full name Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, Spanish Ernesto Guevara de la Serna; June 14, 1928, Argentina - October 9, 1967, Bolivia) - Latin American revolutionary, commander of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. In addition to the Latin American continent, it also operated in the Republic of the Congo. Che received his nickname from the Cuban rebels for the interjection che, characteristic of Argentines, borrowed from the Guarani Indians, which conveys, depending on intonation and context, different feelings.
Everything about him was wrong. Instead of the aristocratic sonorous name of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - a short, almost faceless pseudonym of Che, which doesn’t even have much meaning. Just an interjection - well, hey. Argentines repeat it every other word. But here you go - it caught on, was remembered, and became known to the world. Instead of a smart outfit and pomaded hair, there is a rumpled jacket, worn-out shoes, disheveled hair. A native Argentine, he couldn’t tell a tango from a waltz. And yet, it was he, and not one of his dapper peers, who captivated the heart of Chinchina, the daughter of one of the richest landowners in Cordoba. So he came to parties at her house - shaggy, in shabby clothes, terrifying the snobby guests. And he was still the best for her. For now, of course. In the end, the prose of life took its toll: Chinchina wanted a calm, secure, comfortable life - a normal life, in a word. But Ernesto was just not fit for a normal life. Then, in his youth, he was possessed by a dream - to save the world. At any cost. That's probably the secret. That is why a pampered, sickly boy from a well-born family turned out to be a revolutionary. But in his mother’s family - the last viceroy of Peru, his father’s brother - an admiral - was the Argentine ambassador to Cuba when his nephew was a partisan there. His father, also Ernesto, said: “The blood of Irish rebels, Spanish conquerors and Argentine patriots flowed in my son’s veins”...
If I lose, it will not mean that it was impossible to win. Many failed in their efforts to reach the summit of Everest, and in the end Everest was defeated.
Che Guevara
Go ahead. Revolutionary. In the popular imagination, he is a gloomy, laconic subject, alien to the joys of life. And he lived greedily, with pleasure: he read avidly, loved painting, painted with watercolors himself, was fond of chess (even after making a revolution, he continued to participate in amateur chess tournaments, and jokingly warned his wife: “I’m going on a date”), played football and rugby , was involved in gliding, raced rafts in the Amazon, and loved cycling. Even in newspapers, Guevara’s name appeared for the first time not in connection with revolutionary events, but when he made a four-thousand-kilometer tour on a moped, traveling all over South America. Then, together with a friend, Alberto Granados, Ernesto traveled on a decrepit motorcycle. When the driven motorcycle gave up the ghost, the young people continued on foot. About the adventures in Colombia, Granados recalled: “We arrived in Leticia not only exhausted to the limit, but also without a centavo in our pocket. Our unpresentable appearance aroused natural suspicions among the police, and we soon found ourselves behind bars. We were rescued by the glory of Argentine football. When the chief of police , a passionate fan, learned that we were Argentinians, he offered us freedom in exchange for agreeing to become coaches of a local football team that would participate in the regional championship. And when our team won, grateful leather ball fanatics bought us plane tickets, which safely delivered us to Bogota."
But in order. Painful. On May 2, 1930 (Tete - that was Ernesto's name in childhood - he was only two years old) he had his first asthma attack. Doctors advised a change of climate - the family, having sold their plantation, moved to Cordoba. The disease did not let go of Ernesto all his life. He couldn’t even go to school for the first two years - his mother had to teach him at home. By the way, Ernesto was lucky with his mother. Celia de la Ser na y de la Llosa was an extraordinary woman: she spoke several languages, became one of the first feminists in the country and perhaps the first car enthusiast among Argentine women, and was incredibly well-read. The house had a huge library, the boy became addicted to reading. He adored poetry and retained this passion until his death - in a backpack found in Bolivia after the death of Che, along with the “Bolivian Diary” there was a notebook with his favorite poems.
A man who could not sit still all his life. Since childhood. At the age of eleven, Tete ran away from home with his younger brother. They were found only a few days later, eight hundred (!) kilometers from Rosario. In his youth, already as a medical student, Guevara enlisted on a cargo ship: his family needed money. Then - by his own choice - he interned at a leper colony. One day, fate brought Guevara and Granados to Peru, to the ruins of the ancient Indian city of Machu Picchu, where the last Inca emperor fought the Spanish conquistadors. Alberto said to Che: “You know, old man, let’s stay here. I’ll marry an Indian woman from a noble Incan family, proclaim myself emperor and become the ruler of Peru, and I’ll appoint you prime minister, and together we will carry out a social revolution.” Che replied: “You’re crazy, you can’t make a revolution without shooting!”
After graduating from university and receiving a diploma as a surgeon, Ernesto Guevara did not even think about settling down. It would be possible to start a measured life - the profession of a doctor in Argentina has always been a profitable business - but he... leaves his homeland. And he finds himself in Guatemala at the most dramatic moment for this country. As a result of the first free elections, a moderate reformist government came to power in the republic. In June 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower organized a military intervention against Guatemala. It was then that Guevara’s thought was confirmed: a revolution cannot be made without shooting. Of all the recipes for getting rid of social inequality, Ernesto chooses Marxism, but not rational-dogmatic, but romantically idealized.
After Guatemala, Ernesto ended up in Mexico City, working as a bookseller, street photographer, and doctor. And then his life changed dramatically - he met the Castro brothers. After the unsuccessful assault on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, the Castros emigrated to Mexico. Here they developed a plan to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. At a training camp near Mexico City, Ernesto studied military affairs. The police arrested the future rebel. The only document found on Che turned out to be a certificate of attendance at courses... in the Russian language, which ended up in his pocket.
In the “Heroes” section, we wrote about cultural figures, businessmen, and athletes, but we never wrote about real heroes, whose lives are a tribute to ideals and the struggle for justice. Would you say that you turned out to be a superhero? Well, Che Guevara was him. Take away your skepticism for a moment, let's look at his life, and not at the notorious Cuban Revolution, to make sure of this. Che is not just a guy who ran through the jungle with a machine gun, which earned him a place on the jersey. It's something more.
Family
Ernesto Rafael "Che" Guevara Lynch de la Serna was born in sultry Argentina and had nothing to do with Cuba until the revolution. A crazy mixture of blood raged in his blood, where, in addition to different nationalities, various classes mixed. The mother came from an old aristocratic family, and the father was a descendant of Creoles and a fugitive Irish rebel. So it’s clear in whose footsteps little Ernesto followed. The mother inherited a good plantation of the famous mate, and while she, the darling of the Argentine bohemia, communicated with artists and troubadours, her husband, having retrained from an architect to landowners, remembering his roots (which were similar to the roots of the plantation workers), started working for these same workers pay wages not in food, as was customary, but in money.
Neighboring planters really did not like the reforms of the young upstart, since the workers, realizing where the conditions were sweeter, fled en masse to the de la Serna plantation. But the machinations of the planters turned out to be stronger, and the family had to move to the second largest city of glorious Argentina - Rosario, where Ernesto was born. There the family opened a mate processing factory, but, alas, the business did not work out. A crisis struck and the factory went bankrupt, after which Rafael Guevara - Che's father - swore off ever doing business. When news reached him that Che had become Cuba's Minister of Economy, he just laughed and said that this would not end well, that the Guevara family were very crappy economists.
As a result, the family moved to Cordoba, but not because of financial difficulties - there was another reason. Little Ernesto went with his nanny to the river, but, losing his balance, fell into the icy water, receiving an unpleasant souvenir in the form of asthma for the rest of his heroic life. It was asthma that prevented the fiery revolutionary from becoming a great orator; he was still a man of action. Although, I must admit, he had a good style, as evidenced by his letters. In any case, there were enough words to encourage his comrades during the battle.
If you look at the glorious Guevara family more closely, it becomes clear where this inflamed sense of justice and craving for eternal struggle comes from. Let's take a look at Argentina during Che's childhood - a kind of piece of Europe in wild Latin America. In addition to sultry tango, it was famous for its incredibly developed economy, thanks to which by 1930 it became one of the richest countries. This attracted millions of immigrants, mainly from Italy and Spain, who professed the principles of classical fascism. Argentine leader Juan Peron also supported the fascists, with which Guevara's elders disagreed. Generals who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War and talked about the horrors reigning in the Pyrenees often dined in their house. It was then that Che began to form an opinion. The Guevaras were a kind of oppositionists who criticized the political regime in every possible way. Fortunately, they did not hold high positions: Rafael was a contractor, and Celia... And Celia was a socialite, the dream of troubadours, and there is an opinion that she was one of the ideologists of feminism in Argentina. Is it possible to grow up as a normal person in such a rebellious family? However, Che was always a little crazy.
How character was strengthened
If you begin to tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are my comrade.
Can an asthmatic with regular attacks actively engage in sports, ignoring the doctor’s prohibitions? Erensto could and did spend most of his time playing rugby for the local team. Here his iron character was tempered, and during breaks Che ran to his bag for a life-saving inhaler. Then Ernesto got his first nickname, which he loved very much - Hog. Not at all because of stubbornness and madness on the rugby field, but because of one feature that does not really suit our hero. As you remember, in childhood Ernesto had a sad contact with water, which not only “rewarded” him with asthma, but also discouraged him from loving hygiene. So this is a reference to other qualities for which these animals are famous.
But thanks to his father's upbringing, Che had a developed sense of justice. Therefore, at dances, the handsome Guevara always tried to make ugly girls happy by inviting them to dance.
Everything was fine with the girls. As a young man, he planned to marry the daughter of one of the richest landowners in the province of Cordoba. True, his future father-in-law did not like him himself, since he appeared at parties in shabby clothes and shaggy hair, which contrasted with the scions of wealthy families who sought her hand, and with the typical appearance of Argentine young people of that time. Their relationship was hindered by Che’s desire to devote his life to treating lepers in South America, and in general, he was too spoiled a girl to be the wife of a revolutionary.
However, this phrase speaks about Che’s relationship with the female sex:
A man should not live his entire life with only one woman. A man would simply be an animal if he imposed this restriction on himself, which, however, he regularly violates - hiding or openly.
Che found his wives on the campaign. There he found his only official wife, Aleida March, who gave him four children. And how many fighting friends there were - history is silent.
Che studied poorly, studying only what he liked. “Talented C student” is what biographers call him. Despite poor grades, he spoke fluent French and read Sartre in the original.
Later they will meet and have a long conversation, after which Sartre will call him “an intellectual and the most perfect man of our era.” But that’s later, for now Che goes to Buenos Aires, where he decides to study to become a doctor. Propaganda attributes this impulse to the desire to help people. In fact, he just wanted to know the secret of treating the asthma that tormented him. However, his studies do not interest him as much as his thirst for travel and fashionable political trends. He satisfied his first thirst by getting a job as a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina, visiting the island of Trinidad and British Guiana.
And then there was a legendary trip to Latin America with his friend, leprologist Alberto Granado. Yes, yes, he treated for leprosy - such a bad skin disease, and not at all from the famous site. He himself wanted to visit the leprosariums of the continent, and Che tagged along with him. It's more fun with two. Having destroyed their motorcycle along the way, they literally hitchhiked, eating mate and fantasizing about the future at the sacrifice site in Machu Picchu, treated peasants, and were detained by the police many times for their tired, shabby appearance. There is a story about one of the arrests. While in Brazil, the police learned that tourists from Argentina set a condition that they would release the prisoners if they prepared the local team for the regional championship. The fact is that in the early 50s, Uruguay and Argentina were considered the two greatest football powers in America. Apparently, the Brazilians believed that everyone played in Argentina. And so it was, Ernesto played in the city team, although he rarely entered the field - damn asthma. Surprisingly, the asthmatic Guevara trained to victory.
A wonderful film “Che Guevara: The Motorcyclist Diaries” was made about this journey. It was filmed based on the very notes that Che kept during the trip. It turned out to be an excellent guide, I tell you. But that’s not why travel gets so much attention. After him, having admired how the rich oppress the poor, Che began to become more actively interested in right-wing revolutionary causes.
Struggle
Hasta la victoria siempre. Patria o muerte.
Before going down in history as a fighter for justice, Che communicated with almost all the revolutionaries of Latin America, visited Guatemala, where the local authorities disliked him, moved to Mexico, worked as a laboratory assistant, loader, watchman, wrote articles, read like hell, communicated with people until he came across the Castro brothers. Ernesto didn’t care who he fought for. He was haunted by thoughts of a successful world revolution. Imbued with the speeches of one of the most brilliant orators in history, Che agreed to fight for an island completely foreign to him. True, it is unknown who made a greater impression on whom: Fidel on Che or vice versa. The detachment needed a doctor, and Che agreed, running to the pier to the already departing ship with the cute and eloquent name “Granma” (“Grandmother”).
While swimming, Guevara suffered an asthma attack. Everyone immediately thought that they needed to send the sick doctor back to land, but Che insisted on his own, courageously hiding the attacks that tormented his lungs throughout the war.
Writing about a victorious revolution is a thankless task. You yourself know everything about this. Che, who did not serve in the army, became one of the best field commanders of the revolution. He was stern but fair. He shot traitors and rewarded heroes. Based on personal experience, he wrote a treatise, “Guerrilla Warfare,” about how to create world peace with two rusty machine guns. So if you're thinking of starting a coup, read the manual.
When peace and justice came to Cuba, the charismatic leader and field commander became something of a pop star. Che didn’t like this arrangement. He was drawn to battle, to the jungle, to fight injustice. The post of Minister of Economy did not bring satisfaction. He actually got it by accident. It’s just that when Fidel asked if there were economists among them, Che raised his hand because he thought they were “communists.” However, he did not refuse. But all attempts to sell sugar and visits to friendly countries (including the USSR) completely disappointed him. This is not what he expected; he even stopped signing with the colorful pseudonym “Stalin II.” He considered himself a true Marxist, one of the last. He was drawn to battle, to the very thick, to the very heat. Accusing the USSR of imperialism, making sure that after the revolution it was bureaucrats and not revolutionaries who were taking over the matter, he left to fight for justice in the Congo.
After a revolution, it is not the revolutionaries who do the work. It is done by technocrats and bureaucrats. And they are counter-revolutionaries.
But then something bad happened. If you put monkeys at a typewriter, sooner or later they will type Shakespeare. If you give the Congolese machine guns, they will shoot themselves. With such discipline and with such an approach, a revolution cannot be made, and he turned his attention to Bolivia.
Ah, Bolivia! One of the poorest and most absurd Latin American countries: poor peasants and impenetrable jungle. However, this time the heroic fervor was not enough. The Bolivian army was actively supported by instructors from the United States. The forces were too unequal, and the peasants, learning that they had to fight for freedom, ran away from the detachment. The agent network was failed, there were only traitors all around, and it goes without saying that the detachment was ambushed. Almost everyone was put to death, Che survived. Being unarmed and wounded, he shouted the legendary during his arrest:
"Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara, and I am worth more alive than dead.”
Of course, the CIA tried in every possible way to interrogate him and find out where the others were hiding. But if you believe in your cause, if it’s not blood that flows through your veins, but real courage, you’re not afraid of anything. It was more likely that the Bolivians were afraid of him than he was of them. Even in captivity the animal is dangerous. Even during interrogation. So Che hit the Bolivian officer Espinosa against the wall after he entered the school and tried to snatch the pipe from the mouth of the smoking Che as a souvenir for himself. In another instance of insubordination, Che Guevara spat in the face of Bolivian Rear Admiral Ugartecha as he attempted to question him hours before his execution.
A few minutes before his execution, one of the soldiers guarding him asked Che if he thought about his immortality.
“No,” Che replied, “I think about the immortality of the revolution.”
There is an opinion that the unfortunate Sergeant Teran, who by lot fell to execute Che, received the canonical phrase from the fiery revolutionary:
I know you came to kill me. Shoot. Do it. Shoot me, you coward! You will only kill a person!
But believe me, Che was too calm and balanced. He communicated quite calmly with the soldiers and did not lose his composure even after spending the night in a room where two corpses of his comrades lay. This is such a seasoned man. So Ernesto Rafael “Che” Guevara Lynch de la Serna told his trembling executioner: “Calm down and aim well. Now you will kill a man." Still, the comandante is more than just a person. True, this did not help; rather, it frightened Teran even more, who first put bullets into his arms and legs, and only then into his chest.
“There was no man the CIA feared more than Che Guevara, because he had the ability and charisma necessary to lead the fight against the political repression of traditional power hierarchies in Latin America.”
Philip Agee, CIA agent who defected to Cuba
Life after death
Tell Fidel that the revolution is not over, it will still triumph! Tell Aleida to remarry, be happy, and make sure her children do well in school. And order the soldiers to aim well.
Now the name of Che Guevara is shrouded in an aura of heroism. Absolutely deserved. He can be considered a murderer, a flayer, a fool, but he cannot be blamed for one thing: he was incredibly honest. And intelligence and honesty, supported by brilliant intellect and courage, give birth to the very “superman” that Sartre spoke about. The last romantic of the revolution, he admires the whole world, even those against whom he fought, also because he has crystal clear motives. He didn't need power. He really wanted to see justice. But apparently, justice is impossible in this world, and anyone who fights for it will die as proudly as Che himself. It is for this that Che deserves respect. There are very, very few such people, but they are vitally needed in this lost world.
Now Che Guevara is a brand. But it would be nice for those who wear T-shirts with his symbols to know what kind of person he was.
In the town of La Higuerra, where he was shot, Che is the locally revered saint of “San Ernesto de La Higuera”; in Pelevin’s book, his spirit exposes the motives of human activity, and in general, Che is the true spirit of the Cuban Revolution, shrouded in romantic flair. Well, the most important confirmation that the people loved the Comandante is his creativity. And confirmation of this is not only the iconic photograph of the Cuban photographer Korda, but also hundreds of sad songs, the most famous of which is this one, performed by Kalos Puebla.