Many years ago, 41 years to be exact, on a October day, a man, dirty, disheveled and alone was executed as he sat on the floor of a desolate shack in the wilds of Bolivia, far away from his friends and family. The man was Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che was born in Argentina to a well off family, a family that could afford to give him the best education, something that most of the population in Latin America did and still does not have access to. Eventually Che, restless and adventurous, traveled through South and Central Americas, studied Marxism and Socialism and connected with revolutionaries in Guatemala. President Arbenz instituted socialist changes in the country that was very hard for the United States to swallow. This led to the CIA sponsored overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz and his government. It was during this time that he underwent a political conversion and became convinced that socialism held the solution to the world’s many problems. He came to see capitalism as the great evil and the cause of international misery. While in Guatemala, Che acted upon this conviction, so he decided to join Fidel and Raul Castro, who planned to go to Cuba with a number of others and topple the dictator Fulgencio Batista. After months of training in Mexico, they sailed aboard the ship Granma headed straight to Cuba. When the revolutionaries set foot aground, they triggered an armed guerrilla war that concluded with Batista fleeing off the island as his government collapsed. After this, Fidel Castro became Prime Minister as the Cuban Communist Party was consolidated. Che was appointed to several high offices within the new government, such as head of agrarian reform and president of the Cuban National Bank. It was his guerrilla experience that helped solidify his philosophy that armed warfare was the only path to freedom. Che integrated this into his socialist theory and the result was the book “Guerrilla Warfare.” Initially enamored with the U.S.S.R, he became disillusioned with their brand of socialism due to his observations during his visits to the Soviet Union and the increasing reliance of Cuba on Moscow. Che gravitated towards Mao and Chinese style socialism, but he never described himself as a Maoist. Cuba, through his intervention, funded different armed guerrilla expeditions around Latin America, in Nicaragua, Argentina, The Dominican Republic and Peru, among others. They all ended in disaster. Che believed his place was among the front lines of the worldwide revolution, not in the closed door offices and halls of politics. Frustrated by his administrative duties, Che resigned from all of his positions in government, relinquished his honorary Cuban citizenship, thanked Fidel for his support and severed all ties to Cuba. If personal disagreements between Fidel and Che prompted this decision, no one knows for sure. After Che’s departure, he went to test his guerrilla theories in Africa, which he believed would be at the forefront of the battle against imperialism. This campaign fell apart at the seams from factors beyond Che’s control. When the African dream came to a close he went onward to Bolivia and to face his destiny. Bolivia was picked by Cuban high command (which still supported Che with logistics, equipment and soldiers) because of its geographical location in South America. It was thought that Bolivia would be the epicenter of the revolution that would sweep outward throughout all of Latin America. After some initial victories against the Bolivian army, the tide quickly turned against the guerrillas as they went on the defensive for most of the latter part of the conflict. Lack of preparation, language and cultural barriers plagued and continuous mistakes plagued Che and his comrades. It did not help matters that the Bolivian army was trained in counter insurgency warfare by the U.S Army Special Forces. As defeat neared the guerrillas tried to escape but it was too late. They were encircled by the Bolivian army and decimated. Defeated, despondent and captured he awaited his fate. CIA agent Felix Rodriguez recalled Che stating, “tell Fidel that he will soon see a triumphant revolution in America. And tell my wife to remarry and try to be happy.” Moments later, Che Guevara lie dead from multiple gun shot wounds. Defiant to the end, Che exclaimed to his executioner, “Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.” Che was 39 years old. Despite the canonization of Che and the aura of myth that surrounds him, he was by no means a perfect person. As a matter of fact, he was far from it. So why is he loved internationally even in this day? Because of his heart. Because of the courage it took for him to stand up and try to make things better in the world and to sacrifice comfort at the alter of struggle in exchange for pain and suffering. Che was completely against profiting off the people. For example, Jon Lee Anderson describes one such story in his book, “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life.” Mr. Anderson wrote, ” Not all of Che’s comrades, including some of his ministerial – level peers, appreciated this revolutionary showmanship of his, acknowledged Borrego; he himself had been forced to give up the car of his dreams. When Cuba’s wealthy had fled the country, they left a huge stockpile of cars, promptly nationalized, which the various government ministries allocated to their officials and certain employees. But Borrego had gone one better. During a visit to an “intervened” cigarette factory, a manager had pointed out a brand – new Jaguar sports car that had been abandoned by its owner and suggested that Borrego take it, since no one else knew how to run it. Borrego instantly fell in love with the car and sped around proudly in it for about a week, until the day he drove into a garage where he and Che parked their cars, and Che spotted him. He came toward him yelling: “You’re a chulo – a pimp!” Che pointed to the car and asked him what he thought he was doing, driving around in a car like that? It was a “pimp’s car,” ostentatious, not one a “representative of the people” should be seen driving. Borrego’s heart fell, and he told Che he would return it. “Good,” Che said, “I’ll give you two hours.” Later, up in the office, Che told Borrego that he should be driving a car more like his, a much more modest, year – old green Chevy Impala. Before long, Borrego was given a car exactly like his jefe’s, except that his was two tone, and he would drive it for the next twelve years.” He insisted that one should live modest and never above the people. When other government officials took time off, he worked. He did not tolerate injustice in the world. Che labored on a volunteer basis with the workers on his days off. He constantly worked to develop in the people a character of self sacrifice, commitment and selflessness. Che lived a short life that ended tragically, but he truly lived life to the full. All I ask is for open minds to consider the good in Che’s example for he left behind a symbol of struggle that still resonates with us in this age.
“I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.” Che Guevara
