The name of Ernesto Che Guevara for many is a symbol of the struggle for the rights of the oppressed and enslaved people. However, the romanticized image of a rebel has little in common with reality. The real "Che" is a fanatical and ruthless soldier of the revolution.

Leader

From childhood, Ernesto stood out for his curiosity and leadership qualities. The director of the school where the future revolutionary studied noted his indefatigable desire to be a leader. And “Tete” (Che Guevara’s childhood nickname) had fun drinking ink, eating chalk, exploring abandoned mines and playing bullfight with a ram. Ernesto himself admitted that he was called a “hog” - not at all because of his fatness, but because he was always dirty.

Argentine economics professor Alberto Lynch in his book “My cousin Che” cited the story of his aunt, who told him that in childhood “Tete” took pleasure in tormenting animals. “Death is not so bad,” the teenager made a discovery for himself.
Carlos Figueroa, a friend of Che Guevara's youth, recalled an incident where, during dinner, Ernesto forced a maid to lie on the table in order to have sex with her. When the joys were over, Che Guevara continued his meal with a calm face.

Revolutionary

Che Guevara received his first revolutionary experience during a trip to the countries of Central America. When the Americans initiated a coup in Guatemala in 1954, he immediately rushed to the rescue to the people's government Arbenz. Together with patriotic youth, under the whistling of bullets and explosions of shells, “Che” carried out guard duty for days on end.
However, having found himself on the list of “dangerous communists,” the aspiring revolutionary was forced to leave Guatemala and go to Mexico. There in 1955 he met Fidel Castro. The meeting became fateful: from now on he intends to devote himself to the cause of the revolution.
There is a legend about this. When Fidel Castro gathered his supporters and asked if there was an economist among them, Che Guevara was the first to raise his hand. It turns out that instead of the word “economist” he heard “communist”. The mistake was immediately cleared up, but it was too late to retreat.

Executioner

A common thread running through Che Guevara’s letters, poems and memoirs is “thirst for blood.” And only the fire of the Cuban Revolution could quench it. The Comandante was very indiscriminate in his desires to destroy his enemies: an official, a peasant, or a teenager could fall by his hands. In a letter to his father after the execution of the village guide, he wrote: “At that moment it was revealed to me that I really love killing.”
After Fidel Castro came to power, “Che” became the main initiator of repression. In the town of Santiago de Cuba on January 12, 1959, he staged a demonstrative execution of 72 police officers, showing that this would happen to everyone who served the old regime. By order of the commandant, over eight thousand people were executed without trial or investigation in the fortress-prison of La Cabaña; he himself personally supervised 700 executions.
Another legendary revolutionary, Camilo Cienfuegos, recalled that after the capture of Santa Clara by Che Guevara’s subordinates, every street in the city was littered with corpses. The Black Book of Communism provides terrible figures: in the first year of the revolution alone, Che firing squads executed more than 14,000 people.

Dictator

As soon as the active phase of the Cuban Revolution was completed, Che Guevara organized the work of the secret police. The “enemies” of free Cuba were found everywhere and then taken to the ambulance station. After torture, people were usually shot, and any reason other than the genuine one was included in the death certificate. The number of victims of the secret police is still unknown.
In 1960, Che Guevara decided to establish a labor camp on the Guanaacabibes Peninsula. Everyone who had even the slightest suspicion of criticizing the communist regime went there. There was a place there for believers, homosexuals and rock and roll fans.
This camp served as the beginning of UMAP, a camp system reminiscent of the Stalinist Gulag. UMAP became a concentration point for all the untrustworthy Cubans who were forced to do absolutely wild things, for example, cut grass with their teeth, or sit up to their necks in shit all day.

Communist

The ideal for Che Guevara was the Stalinist principles of building communism. “I swore in front of the portrait of the deceased and mourned comrade Stalin that I would not have rest until I saw how the capitalist octopus would be destroyed,” he wrote in his diary.
In 1960, as an envoy of the Island of Liberty, Che Guevara toured the countries of the socialist camp, visiting the USSR. Two years later, during a return visit to the Soviet Union, already as the Minister of Industry of Cuba, he agreed on cooperation between the two countries in the field of weapons.
Despite friendly relations with Soviet leadership, Che Guevara later made critical remarks about him. In particular, he accused the USSR authorities of “imposing poorest countries conditions of commodity exchange similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market.”

"African"

In April 1965, the Comandante decided to join the Congolese rebels. In a short time, a detachment of 150 people was formed from dark-skinned Cubans, which were thrown into battle from the ship to the ball. Already in the first battle, four Cubans fell. But main problem The Congolese themselves became “Che” - out of 160 partisans, 60 deserted even before the operation began, and many did not fire a single shot.
It wasn't any easier. The situation for the Cuban instructors was complicated by the fact that local leaders went on the run, and the peasants were becoming more and more hostile towards them every day. On November 1, 1965, Che Guevara received orders to leave the Congo and return to Cuba. He summed up the Congolese epic: “Victory is a significant source of positive experience, but so is defeat.”

Victim

The next country where Che Guevara was going to export the revolution was Bolivia, but the partisan detachment he created was surrounded and defeated by government troops. “Che” himself was captured. Soon an order came from La Paz to liquidate “Señor Guevara.” The order was given to the prisoner by CIA agent Felix Rodriguez, adding: “Comandante, I’m sorry.”
Che Guevara was shot by Bolivian army sergeant Mario Teran, who wanted to take revenge on the revolutionary for the death of three of his comrades in battles with the rebels. First, Teran shot in the legs and arms, and only then mortally wounded the commander in the chest. By official version Che Guevara was killed in battle.

"Saint"

Cuban propaganda did everything to elevate Che Guevara into national heroes. And apparently she overdid it. Some Latin Americans began to venerate "Che" as a saint, turning to him in prayers "San Ernesto de La Higuera." The memories of Bolivians who saw the murdered revolutionary also played a role in this. Not a single dead person was as similar to Christ as “Che,” they said.
Che Guevara's popularity has not faded over the years. In his homeland in the Argentine city of Rosario, a 4-meter bronze statue was installed in 2008, and many museums named after him were opened throughout the country. The Cuban authorities decided to immortalize the revolutionary by depicting him on local pesos, and in the schools of Liberty Island, classes will not begin without the song “We will be like Che.”

“Ernesto was an extraordinary person. If God exists, then this is Che Guevara,” - this is how he assessed Cuban revolutionary his comrade Jose Garcia Galogo. On June 10, the world celebrates the birthday of Che Guevara - this year he would have turned 86 years old. We offer readers an essay about little known facts from the life of Che Guevara, which reflect the traits of his personality, sacrificed to the revolution.

Historians are competing, trying to show Che Guevara either as a hero who fearlessly gave his life for a just cause, or as a bloodthirsty killer. Even death causes criticism, a memory that should be left inviolable. So, according to the official report of the Bolivian commander, in anticipation of the death of Che Guevara, he threw his machine gun to the ground and shouted: “Don’t shoot! I'm Che! I’ll be more useful to you alive than dead!” Others argue that these are pointless attempts to denigrate the hero: in fact, in his last moments, Che held his head high and proudly exclaimed: “Shoot, coward, you will only kill a man.” And in a letter to his parents, Che Guevara made fun of death, claiming that he, like a cat, had seven lives, but he spent only two in battles.

Che Guevara: a story of opposites

In the union of opposites, integrity is born. The complexity of this personality does not allow him to be reduced to a banal scheme of “good - evil”: this man treated peasants and animals for free and at the same time put forward ideas a la “A revolutionary must become a soulless killing machine, motivated by pure hatred.”
Che had few friends - mainly because of his caustic humor. Consider his statement regarding a magazine devoted to problems of psychiatry, the circulation of which seemed unreasonably large to him: “I am overcome by doubts of a psycho-neuro-economic nature: maybe rats will use this magazine? Maybe with its help they will deepen their knowledge in the field of psychiatry or eat it as a delicacy? This attitude towards medicine is no coincidence: even in his youth, Che Guevara came to the conclusion that for successful career the doctor needs to serve the masters, offering useless medicines to imaginary patients. However, Che treated the poor - and did not take a penny from them.

Che Guevara's associates loved and appreciated his leadership abilities. True, there is another secret that Che carried into the ground - whether the revolutionary really died due to the betrayal of Fidel Castro. Che Guevara's daughter, Aleida Guevara March, sheds some light on this problem and considers this gossip devoid of meaning:
- A living Che would be an incredible support for Fidel in Cuba. He had no problems in the economic sphere because he completely trusted Che. I once came to see Fidel. We talked for many hours, and in the end I asked him: “Tell me about your disputes with dad ...” And he said that when they were in Mexico and knew that they would be taken prisoner, Fidel warned all his comrades that no one should talk about their political beliefs... What do you think your dad did? He argued with the jailer not only about political beliefs, but even about Stalin. In the end, we were all released, except for dad. He remained in prison for being a communist... And this act of Fidel - he did not leave Mexico until he achieved the release of my dad, risking all the plans that they had prepared upon arriving in Cuba.

Che Guevara: a little about personal

...If revolutionary activity is filled with contradictory facts, what can we say about the personal life of the hero! IN Che Guevara's life had three beloved women, each of whom was a revolutionary. Paradox: with the exception of Tanya the Partisan, the hero’s last love, Che Guevara allowed all other women not to engage in subversive activities, but to take care of themselves and the family hearth. Although he believed: “Into the difficult life of fighters, a woman brings qualities characteristic of her sex, and can work on an equal basis with a man. No matter how severe the repression, a woman is less likely to be a victim of repression than a man.”
Che Guevara's first wife, Peruvian Ilda Gadea, was much older than Che. Witnesses said that the most important thing for Che Guevara was spiritual closeness, and what attracted him to Ilda was that she was engrossed in Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Gorky. However, this did not stop Che Guevara from getting a divorce four years later.

Che Guevara's second wife, Aleida March, described their love story in her memoirs. They met in military conditions: Aleida was an active participant in the underground movement and went on a special mission. Subsequently, Che recalled: seeing Aleida, who was busy transferring money and documents, he was torn between the role he had defined as a tough revolutionary and the passion of a man in love.
On their first meeting, Che Guevara asked Aleida what she thought of him, to which the woman replied: “I think you’re not a bad person.” Aleida’s friend Martha, on the contrary, admired Che: “Just look at his hands! How strong and well-groomed they are!”
Having completed the task, Aleida left - but soon returned to offer Che her help and care for the sick in the camp. Che did not agree: at that moment he thought that the leaders of the movement did not trust him because of his communist views and sent a young woman to spy on him. However, Aleida remained.
Days passed, and both revolutionaries realized that they were united not only by loyalty to a just cause. In her memoirs, Aleida March recalled touching moments - her first confession, her first poem:
“I was standing on the threshold of the factory, where we were watching the movement of the enemy camp, and suddenly Che began to recite a poem that was unknown to me. At this time I was talking to others - and this was an attempt to attract my attention. It seemed to me that he wanted me to look at him not as a leader or boss, but as a man.

Some time has passed since Aleida already worked as Che Guevara’s personal assistant. One day he talked to her about his family, about his thirteen-year-old daughter Gildita, who was born while Che was in prison, and talked about how he had separated from his wife a long time ago. One of the most amazing memories is the words that the revolutionary, ruthless towards his enemies, spoke to the woman he loved:
- I'm afraid to seem funny, but still let me say that a real revolutionary is led by great power love. It is impossible to think of a talented revolutionary who would not have love in his life.
At the same time, Che Guevara said that he fell in love with Aleida at first sight, from the very moment this fearless woman entered the territory of their camp.
A happy marriage brought the family four children... But all this did not leave Che Guevara in the face of his last - tragic love.

Che Guevara and the Fleeting Star

“...I entrusted my wishes to a fleeting star who met me on the way at the behest of the Magic King,” the revolutionary wrote about his fighting friend Aida Tamara Bunke Bider, nicknamed Tanya the Partisan. The task that Che Tane set was to penetrate enemy territory - Bolivia. Teaching German and demonstrating a passion for Indian folklore, Tanya gained the confidence of the Bolivian president, while at the same time looking for headquarters for the future war of liberation. Having got a job as a radio presenter on the program “Advice for Unrequited Lovers,” Tanya received unlimited access to the airwaves - and encrypted important information... When, after some time, Tanya was reported and the police discovered her tape recordings, the police spent forty hours listening to them - but they only heard songs of the highlanders in the Guarani and Aymara languages.

IN joint military campaignThe woman not only did not complain, but she was also looked after by the fighters. But after some time it turned out that Tanya was sick and she could not go further. Che Guevara left her in the care of seventeen fighters, and he himself covered from governments troops. They never met again - Tanya was in the rapids when a bullet hit her in the chest. A witness to those events, Rodolfo Saldanha, wrote in his memoirs: “The soldier narrowed his eyes... Then he distinguished among the partisans a woman dressed in khaki trousers and a green striped shirt, with a machine gun over her shoulder and a backpack on her back. He pressed the butt to his shoulder. I took aim. A woman's silhouette appeared in the sight. He pulled the trigger, fired a burst and saw how the woman fell, blood staining her clothes. The voice asking the partisans to surrender died down. This is how Tanya the Partisan was killed near the very shore of the Rio Grande.”

...Tanya's death became fatal blow for Che. And Che Guevara himself died forty days later - he was only 39 years old. As Pablo Neruda said, “Every person has moments of emotional outbursts. Che had this impulse all his life.”

Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1927 in one of the largest cities. The famous prefix “Che” began to be used much later. With its help, while living in Cuba, the revolutionary emphasized his own Argentine origin. "Che" is a reference to the interjection. It is a popular title in Ernesto's homeland.

Childhood and interests

Guevara's father was an architect, his mother was a girl from a family of planters. The family moved several times. The future Comandante Che Guevara graduated from college in Cordoba, and received his higher education in Buenos Aires. The young man decided to become a doctor. By profession he was a surgeon and dermatologist.

Already early biography Ernesto Che Guevara shows how extraordinary his personality was. The young man was interested not only in medicine, but also in numerous humanities. His reading range consisted of the most famous writers: Verne, Hugo, Dumas, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. The revolutionary's socialist views were shaped by the works of Marx, Engels, Bakunin, Lenin and other left-wing theorists.

A little-known fact that distinguished the biography of Ernesto Che Guevara is that he knew French perfectly. In addition, he loved poetry and knew the works of Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Lorca by heart. In Bolivia, where the revolutionary died, he carried a notebook with his favorite poems in his backpack.

On the roads of America

Guevara's first independent trip outside of Argentina dates back to 1950, when he worked part-time on a cargo ship and visited British Guiana and Trinidad. The Argentine loved bicycles and mopeds. The next voyage covered Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. In the future, the partisan biography of Ernesto Che Guevara will be full of many such expeditions. In his early youth, he traveled to neighboring countries to get to know the world better and gain fresh impressions.

Guevara's partner on one of his travels was the doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granado. Together with him, the Argentine doctor visited leper colonies in Latin American countries. The couple also visited the ruins of several ancient Indian cities (the revolutionary was always keenly interested in the history of the indigenous population of the New World). When Ernesto was traveling in Colombia, civil war began there. By chance, he even visited Florida. A few years later, Che, as a symbol of the “export of revolutions,” would become one of the main opponents of the White House administration.

In Guatemala

In 1953, future leader Ernesto Che Guevara, during a break between two major trips to Latin America, defended thesis dedicated to the study of allergies. Having become a surgeon, the young man decided to move to Venezuela and work in a leper colony there. However, on the way to Caracas, one of his fellow travelers persuaded Guevara to go to Guatemala.

The traveler found himself in the Central American republic on the eve of the invasion of the Nicaraguan army, organized by the CIA. Cities in Guatemala were bombed and Socialist President Jacobo Arbenz relinquished power. The new head of state, Castillo Armas, was pro-American and began repressions against supporters of leftist ideas living in the country.

In Guatemala, the biography of Ernesto Che Guevara was for the first time directly related to the war. The Argentine helped the defenders of the overthrown regime transport weapons and participated in extinguishing fires during air raids. When the socialists suffered a final defeat, Guevara's name was included in the lists of people who were awaiting repression. Ernesto managed to take refuge in the embassy of his native Argentina, where he found himself under diplomatic protection. From there he moved to Mexico City in September 1954.

Meet the Cuban revolutionaries

In the capital of Mexico, Guevara tried to get a job as a journalist. He wrote a test article about events in Guatemala, but it didn't go any further. For several months, the Argentine worked part-time as a photographer. Then he was a watchman in a book publishing house. In the summer of 1955, Ernesto Che Guevara, personal life who was illuminated by a joyful event, got married. His fiancée, Ilda Gadea, came to Mexico City from her homeland. Occasional earnings barely helped the emigrant. Finally, Ernesto, through a competition, got a job at a city hospital, where he began working in the allergy department.

In June 1955, two young men came to see doctor Guevara. These were Cuban revolutionaries trying to overthrow dictator Batista on his home island. Two years earlier, opponents of the old regime attacked the Moncada barracks, after which they were tried and imprisoned. The day before, an amnesty had been declared, and revolutionaries began to flock to Mexico City. During his ordeal in Latin America, Ernesto met many socialist Cubans. One of his old friends came to see him, offering to participate in the upcoming military expedition to the Caribbean island.

A few days later, the Argentine met for the first time. Even then, the doctor firmly decided to give his consent to participate in the raid. In July 1955, Raul's older brother arrived in Mexico from the United States. Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara became the main actors the impending revolution. Their first meeting took place at one of the Cuban safe houses. The next day, Guevara became a member of the expedition as a doctor. Recalling that period, Fidel Castro later admitted that Che understood the theoretical and ideological issues of the revolution much better than his Cuban comrades.

Guerrilla warfare

As they prepared to sail to Cuba, members of the 26th of July Movement (the name of the organization led by Fidel Castro) faced many difficulties. An agent provocateur infiltrated the ranks of the revolutionaries and informed the authorities about the suspicious activities of foreigners. In the summer of 1956, Mexican police staged a raid after which the conspirators, including Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, were arrested. Famous public and cultural figures began to stand up for opponents of the Batista regime. As a result, the revolutionaries were released. Guevara spent more time under arrest than the rest of his comrades (57 days), as he was charged with illegally crossing the border.

Finally, the expeditionary force left Mexico and went by ship to Cuba. The departure took place on November 25, 1956. Ahead was a months-long guerrilla war. The arrival of Castro's supporters on the island was marred by a shipwreck. The detachment, consisting of 82 men, found itself in the mangroves. It was attacked by government aircraft. Half of the expedition died under shelling, and another two dozen people were captured. Finally, the revolutionaries took refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Provincial peasants supported the partisans, gave them shelter and food. Caves and difficult passes became other safe shelters.

At the beginning of the new year 1957, Batista's opponents won their first victory, killing five government soldiers. Soon, some members of the detachment came down with malaria. Ernesto Che Guevara was among them. Guerrilla warfare made us accustomed to mortal danger. Every day the soldiers faced another fatal threat. Che fought the insidious disease, resting in peasant huts. His comrades often saw him sitting with a notepad or another book. Guevara's diary later formed the basis of his own memoirs of the guerrilla war, published after the victory of the revolution.

By the end of 1957, the rebels already controlled the Sierra Maestra mountains. New volunteers joined the detachment from among local residents dissatisfied with the Batista regime. At the same time, Fidel made Ernesto major (comandante). Che Guevara began to command a separate column consisting of 75 people. The underground fighters enjoyed support abroad. American journalists penetrated their mountains and produced reports in the United States about the July 26 Movement.

The Comandante not only led the military operations, but also conducted propaganda activities. Ernesto Che Guevara became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Free Cuba. Its first issues were written by hand, then the rebels managed to get a hectograph.

Victory over Batista

In the spring of 1958, a new stage of guerrilla warfare began. Castro's supporters began to leave the mountains and operate in the valleys. In the summer, stable contact was established with Cuban communists in cities where strikes began to occur. Che Guevara's detachment was responsible for the offensive in the province of Las Villas. Having traveled a distance of 600 kilometers, in October this army reached the Escambray mountain range and opened a new front. For Batista, the situation was getting worse - the US authorities refused to supply him with weapons.

In Las Villas, where rebel power was finally established, a law was published on agrarian reform - the liquidation of landowners' estates. The policy of demolishing old patriarchal customs in the countryside attracted more and more peasants to the ranks of the revolutionaries. The initiator of the popular reform was Ernesto Che Guevara. He spent years of his life studying the theoretical works of socialists, and now he honed his oratory skills, convincing ordinary Cubans of the correctness of the path proposed by the members of the July 26 Movement.

The last and decisive battles were the battle for Santa Clara. It began on December 28 and ended with the rebel victory on January 1, 1959. A few hours after the surrender of the garrison, Batista left Cuba and spent the rest of his life in forced emigration. The battles for Santa Clara were led directly by Che Guevara. On January 2, his troops entered Havana, where a triumphant population awaited the revolutionaries.

New life

After Batista's defeat, newspapers around the world asked who Che Guevara was, what made this rebel leader famous and what was his political future? In February 1959, Fidel Castro's government declared him a citizen of Cuba. At the same time, Guevara began to use the famous prefix “Che” in his signatures, with which he went down in history.

Under the new government, yesterday's rebel served as president of the National Bank (1959 - 1961) and minister of industry (1961 - 1965). In the first summer after the victory of the revolution, he, as an official, conducted an entire world tour, during which he visited Egypt, Sudan, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Indonesia, Burma, Japan, Morocco, Spain and Yugoslavia. Also in June 1959, the commander married for the second time. His wife was Aleida March, a member of the July 26 Movement. The children of Ernesto Che Guevara (Aleida, Camilo, Celia, Ernesto) were born in marriage with this woman (except eldest daughter Ilda).

Government activities

In the spring of 1961, the American leadership, having finally fallen out with Castro, began an operation in which enemy troops landed on Liberty Island. Until the end of the operation, Che Guevara led troops in one of the provinces of Cuba. The American plan failed, and socialist power in Havana remained.

In the fall, Che Guevara visited the GDR, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In the Soviet Union, his delegation signed agreements on the supply of Cuban sugar. Moscow also promised financial and technical assistance to Liberty Island. Ernesto Che Guevara, Interesting Facts about which a separate book could be written, participated in the festive parade dedicated to the next anniversary October revolution. The Cuban guest stood on the podium of the mausoleum next to Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo. Subsequently, Guevara visited the Soviet Union several more times.

As a minister, Che seriously reconsidered his attitude towards the governments of socialist countries. He was dissatisfied with the fact that large communist states (primarily the USSR and China) established their own strict conditions for the exchange of goods with subsidized small partners, such as Cuba.

In 1965, during a visit to Algeria, Guevara made a famous speech in which he criticized Moscow and Beijing for their enslaving attitude towards fraternal countries. This episode once again showed who Che Guevara was, what he became famous for and what reputation this revolutionary had. He did not compromise his own principles, even if he had to go into conflict with his allies. Another reason for the Comandante’s dissatisfaction was the reluctance of the socialist camp to actively intervene in new regional revolutions.

Expedition to Africa

In the spring of 1965, Che Guevara found himself in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This Central African country was experiencing a political crisis, and guerrillas were operating in its jungles, advocating the establishment of socialism in their homeland. The Comandante arrived in the Congo along with a hundred other Cubans. He helped organize the underground, sharing with them his own experience gained during the war with Batista.

Although Che Guevara put all his strength into the new adventure, new failures awaited him at every step. The rebels suffered several defeats, and relations between the Cubans and the leader of their African comrades, Kabila, did not work out from the very beginning. After several months of bloodshed, the Congolese authorities, opposed by the socialists, made some compromises and resolved the conflict. Another blow to the rebels was Tanzania's refusal to provide them with rear bases. In November 1965, Che Guevara left the Congo without achieving the goals set for the revolution.

Future plans

Che's stay in Africa cost him another case of malaria. In addition, the attacks of asthma, from which he had suffered since early childhood. The commander spent the first half of 1966 in secret in Czechoslovakia, where he was treated in one of the sanatoriums of Czechoslovakia. While taking a break from the war, the Latin American continued to work on planning new revolutions around the world. His statement about the need to create “many Vietnams,” where at that time the conflict between the two main world political systems was in full swing, became widely known.

In the summer of 1966, the Comandante returned to Cuba and led preparations for the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia. As it turned out, this war was his last. In March 1967, Barrientos learned with horror about the activities of guerrillas in his country, thrown into the jungle from socialist Cuba.

To get rid of the “Red threat”, the politician turned to Washington for help. The White House decided to use special CIA units against Che's squad. Soon, leaflets scattered from the air began to appear over the provincial villages in the vicinity of which the guerrillas were operating, announcing a large reward for the murder of the Cuban revolutionary.

Death

In total, Che Guevara spent 11 months in Bolivia. All this time he kept notes, which after his death were published in the form of a separate book. Gradually, the Bolivian authorities began to push back the rebels. Two detachments were destroyed, after which the commander was left almost completely isolated. On October 8, 1967, he and several comrades were surrounded. Two rebels were killed. Many were injured, including Ernesto Che Guevara. How the revolutionary died became known thanks to the recollections of several eyewitnesses.

Guevara, along with his comrades, was sent under escort to the village of La Higuera, where there was a place for the prisoners in a small adobe building, which was a local school. The underground fighters were captured by a Bolivian detachment, which had completed training the day before, organized by military advisers sent by the CIA. Che refused to answer the officers' questions, spoke only to the soldiers and from time to time asked for a smoke.

On the morning of October 9, an order came to the village from the Bolivian capital to execute the Cuban revolutionary. On the same day he was shot. The body was transported to a nearby town, where Guevara's corpse was put on display for local residents and journalists. The hands of the body were amputated in order to officially confirm the death of the rebel using prints. The remains were buried in a secret mass grave.

The burial was discovered in 1997 thanks to the efforts of American journalists. At the same time, the remains of Che and several of his comrades were transferred to Cuba. There they were interred with honors. The mausoleum where Ernesto Che Guevara is buried is located in Santa Clara, the city in which the Comandante won his main victory in 1959.