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About Che Guevara

The name of Ernesto Che Guevara is already so "promoted", so much has been said about him, truthful and not so much, the accents are shifted and the image is worn out, a picture is made and put into circulation, and I think it is not worth retelling and sucking everything once again. We will limit ourselves only to the fact that we will give a few quotes and documentary statements.

"75 years ago, on June 14, 1928, in the Argentine city of Rosario was born a man who is sometimes called" the last revolutionary of the XX century "- Ernesto Guevara Lynch de la Serna. Nicknamed" Che "(" friend "," comrade "), a young doctor Guevara received it after he met in Mexico with Fidel Castro, who was preparing a detachment for the landing in Cuba. Since then and to this day Ernesto Guevara is known precisely as Che Guevara. "

"The fight against the thoroughly rotten and corrupt ruling regimes became the work of Che Guevara's entire life, and he gave himself up to this fight without a trace. The uncompromising attitude with which Che Guevara waged this fight did not always find understanding even among his closest associates."

"My defeat will not mean that it was impossible to win. Many were defeated trying to reach the summit of Everest, and in the end Everest was defeated."

"With his indefatigable energy, thirst for struggle, Che Guevara won truly boundless respect not only from friends, but also from many enemies. Captain of the Bolivian army Harry Prado, who commanded the operation to destroy Che Guevara's detachment, sincerely admired the courage of his opponent, his confidence in the rightness of his cause."

"In 1967, he set off on his last trip to Bolivia, from which he never returned. Probably no one was expecting him except his family. He was too uncomfortable and unpredictable."

"... I again feel the ribs of Rocinante with my heels, again, donning armor, I set off. Many will call me an adventurer, and this is so. But only I am an adventurer of a special kind, of the breed that risk their skin, to prove my point. Maybe I'm trying to do this one last time. I'm not looking for that end, but it's possible ... And if it happens, take my last hug. "

"Revolutionary romanticism had nothing to do with reality, and ultimately served the Commander a disservice. After all, it was the Bolivian peasants, whose support he hoped so much, gave the government troops the location of his detachment. But, even being captured, Che Guevara did not speak about not a single bad word to their failed comrades-in-arms. "

Che's posthumous popularity was ensured by a single photograph taken by Alberto Corda on March 5, 1960, when Guevara attended a memorial service in memory of the Belgian sailors who died during the attack on Cuba by the rebels. The photograph gained worldwide fame in 1968 when it became a symbol of student unrest in Paris. Since then, the image of a bearded man in a beret with a revolutionary gaze has become an indispensable attribute of "rebellious" youth.

Ernesto Che Guevara (Ernesto Che Guevara), full name - Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna (Spanish Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna). Born June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina - died on October 9, 1967 in La Higuera, Bolivia. Latin American revolutionary, Commander of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and Cuban statesman.

In addition to the Latin American continent, he also acted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries of the world (data are still classified as classified).

Che used the nickname to emphasize his Argentine origins.

The interjection che is a common usage in Argentina.

Natalia Cardone - Che Guevara

Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario, in the family of the architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900-1987). Both Ernesto Che Guevara's father and mother were Argentine Creoles. The paternal grandmother was descended in the male line from the Irish rebel Patrick Lynch. There were also Californian Creoles who received US citizenship in their paternal family.

Ernesto Guevara's mother, Celia De La Serna, was born in 1908 in Buenos Aires and married Ernesto Guevara Lynch in 1927. A year later, the firstborn was born - Ernesto.

Celia inherited the yerba mate (so-called Paraguayan tea) plantation in the province of Misiones. Having improved the situation of the workers (in particular, by starting to pay them their wages in money, not food), Che's father displeased the surrounding planters, and the family was forced to move to Rosario, at that time - the second largest city in Argentina, opening a yerba processing factory there. mate. In this city Che was born. Due to the global economic crisis, the family returned to the plantation in Misiones after a while.

In addition to Ernesto, whose childhood name was Tete (this is a diminutive for Ernesto), the family had four more children: Celia, Roberto, Anna Maria and Juan Martin. All children received higher education.

At the age of two, on May 7, 1930, Tete suffered the first attack of bronchial asthma - this disease haunted him until the end of his life. To restore the baby's health, the family moved to the province of Cordoba, an area with a healthier mountain climate.

Che Guevara as a child

Having sold the estate, the family bought Villa Nidia in the town of Alta Gracia, at an altitude of two thousand meters above sea level. His father began to work as a construction contractor, and his mother looked after the sick Tete. The first two years Ernesto could not attend school and studied at home (he learned to read at the age of 4), as he suffered from daily asthma attacks. After that, he went to high school in Alta Gracia with interruptions (due to health conditions).

At the age of thirteen, Ernesto entered the Dean Funes State College in Cordoba, from which he graduated in 1945, and then entered the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.

Father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, in February 1969, said: “I tried to educate my children comprehensively. And our house was always open for their peers, among whom were the children of the wealthy families of Cordoba, and the working children, there were also the children of the communists. Tete, for example, was friends with Negrita, the daughter of the poet Cayetano Cordoba Iturburu, who at that time shared the ideas of the communists, who was married to Celia's sister. ".

In 1964, speaking to a correspondent for the Cuban newspaper El Mundo, Guevara said that he first became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, being passionate about chess, when a Cuban chess player arrived in Buenos Aires. In the house of Che's parents there was a library of several thousand books. From the age of four, Ernesto, like his parents, became passionate about reading, which continued until the end of his life.

In his youth, the future revolutionary had an extensive reading circle: Salgari, Dumas, later -, Kropotkin,. He read popular at that time social novels by Latin American authors - Ciro Alegria from Peru, Jorge Icaza from Ecuador, Jose Eustacio Rivera from Colombia, which described the life of Indians and workers on plantations, works by Argentine authors - Jose Hernandez, Sarmiento and others.

Young Ernesto read in the original in French (knowing this language from childhood) and was engaged in the interpretation of the philosophical works of Sartre "L'imagination", "Situations I" and "Situations II", "L'Être et le Nèant", "Baudlaire", "Qu'est-ce que la litèrature?", "L'imagie." He loved poetry and even wrote poetry himself. Read by Baudelaire, Verlaine, Antonio Machada, Pablo Neruda, the works of his contemporary Spanish republican poet Leon Felipe.

In his backpack, besides "Bolivian Diary", a notebook with his favorite poems was posthumously discovered. Subsequently, a two-volume and nine-volume collected works of Che Guevara were published in Cuba. Tete was strong in the exact sciences such as mathematics, but chose the profession of a doctor.

He played football at the local sports club "Atalaya", playing in the reserve team (he could not play in the first team, because from time to time he needed an inhaler due to asthma). He also went in for rugby (played for the San Isidro club), equestrian sports, was fond of golf and gliding, with a special passion for cycling (in the caption on one of his photographs, presented to his bride Chinchina, he called himself “the king of the pedal”) ...

In 1950, while already a student, Ernesto was hired as a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina, visited the island of Trinidad and British Guiana. Then he made a trip on a moped, which was provided to him by the company "Micron" for advertising purposes, with partial coverage of travel expenses. In an announcement from the Argentine magazine El Grafico on May 5, 1950, Che wrote: “February 23, 1950. Seniors, representatives of the Micron mopeds company. I am sending you the Mikron moped for inspection. On it I traveled four thousand kilometers across the twelve provinces of Argentina. The moped functioned flawlessly throughout the trip, and I did not find the slightest malfunction in it. Hope to get it back in the same condition. ".

Che's youthful love was Chinchina(translated as "rattle"), the daughter of one of the richest landowners in the province of Cordoba. According to the testimony of her sister and other people, Che loved her and wanted to marry her. He appeared at parties in tattered clothes and shaggy, which was in contrast to the offspring of wealthy families who sought her hand, and with the typical appearance of Argentine young people of that time. Their relationship was thwarted by Che's desire to devote his life to treating South American lepers, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he admired.

The Spanish Civil War caused a significant public outcry in Argentina. Guevara's parents assisted the Republican Spain Relief Committee in addition, they were neighbors and friends of Juan Gonzalez Aguilar (deputy to Juan Negrin, prime minister of the Spanish government before the defeat of the Republic), who emigrated to Argentina and settled in Alta Gracia. The children attended one school and then a college in Cordoba. Che's mother, Celia, drove them daily by car to college. The prominent Republican General Jurado, who was visiting the Gonzaleses, visited the house of the Guevara family and talked about the events of the war and the actions of the Francoists and German Nazis, which, according to his father, influenced the political views of the young Che.

During World War II, President of Argentina Juan Peron maintained diplomatic relations with the Axis countries - and Che's parents were among the active opponents of his regime... In particular, Celia was arrested for her participation in one of the anti-Peronist demonstrations in Cordoba. In addition to her, her husband also participated in the militant organization against the dictatorship of Peron; bombs were made in the house for demonstrations. Significant enthusiasm among the Republicans was caused by the news of the victory of the USSR in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Together with the doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granado (a friendly nickname - Mial), for seven months from February to August 1952, Ernesto Guevara traveled across Latin America, visiting Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Granado was six years older than Che. Originally from the southern province of Cordoba, he graduated from the University of Pharmacy, became interested in the treatment of leprosy and, after studying at the university for another three years, became a doctor of biochemistry.

Since 1945 he worked in a leper colony 180 km from Cordoba. In 1941, he met Ernesto Guevara, who was then 13 years old, through his brother Thomas, Ernesto's classmate at Dean Funes College. He began to frequent Che's parents' house and used their rich library. They became friends with a love of reading and arguments about what they read. Granado and his brothers took long mountain walks and built outdoor huts around Cordoba, and Ernesto often joined them (his parents believed this would help his asthma fight).

Guevara's family lived in Buenos Aires, where Ernesto studied at the Faculty of Medicine.

At the Institute for the Study of Allergy, he trained under the guidance of the Argentine scientist Dr. Pisani. At that time, Guevara's family was experiencing financial difficulties, and Ernesto was forced to earn money as a librarian. Coming on vacation to Cordoba, he visited Granado in the leper colony, helped him in experiments to research new methods of treating lepers.

On one of his visits, in September 1951, Granado, on the advice of his brother Thomas, invited him to become a travel companion in South America. Granado intended to visit the leper colony of various countries of the continent, get acquainted with their work and, possibly, write a book about it. Ernesto enthusiastically accepted this offer, asking him to wait until he passes the next exams, since he was in his last year of medical school. Ernesto's parents did not mind, provided that he returned no later than a year later to pass the final exams.

On December 29, 1951, having loaded a heavily worn Granado motorcycle with useful items, a tent, blankets, taking a camera and an automatic pistol, they set off. We stopped by to say goodbye to Chinchina, who gave Ernesto $ 15 and asked him to bring her a dress or swimsuit from the United States. Ernesto gave her a goodbye puppy, calling him Comeback - "Come back", translated from English ("come back").

We also said goodbye to Ernesto's parents. Granado recalled: “Nothing further stopped us in Argentina, and we headed for Chile, the first foreign country on our way. Having passed the province of Mendoza, where Che's ancestors once lived and where we visited several hacienda, watching how horses are tamed and how our gauchos live, we turned south, away from the Andean peaks, impassable for our stunted two-wheeled Rocinante. We had to suffer a lot. The motorcycle broke down incessantly and needed to be repaired. We didn’t ride it so much as we dragged it on ourselves. ".

Staying overnight in the forest or in the field, they earned their food on occasional jobs: they washed dishes in restaurants, treated peasants or acted as veterinarians, repaired radios, worked as loaders, porters or sailors. We exchanged experiences with colleagues, visiting leper colony, where they had the opportunity to take a break from the road.

Guevara and Granado were not afraid of infection and felt sympathy for the lepers, wanting to devote their lives to their treatment.

On February 18, 1952, they arrived in the Chilean city of Temuco. The local newspaper, Diario Austral, published an article entitled "Two Argentinean Leprological Experts Traveling in South America on a Motorcycle."

Granado's motorcycle finally broke down near Santiago, after which they moved to the port of Valparaiso (where they intended to visit the leper colony of Easter Island, but learned that the steamer would have to wait six months, and abandoned the idea), and then on foot, on hitchhiking or "hares" to steamers or trains. We walked to the Chuquicamata copper mine, which belonged to the American company Braden Copper Mining Company, after spending the night in the barracks of the mine guards.

In Peru, travelers got acquainted with the life of the Quechua and Aymara Indians, by that time exploited by landowners and drowning hunger with coca leaves. In the city of Cuzco, Ernesto spent several hours reading books about the Inca empire in the local library. We spent several days on the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Having settled down on the site for sacrifices of an ancient temple, they began to drink mate and fantasize.

Granado recalled his dialogue with Ernesto: “You know, old man, let's stay here. I will marry an Indian woman from a noble Inca family, proclaim myself emperor and become the ruler of Peru, and appoint you prime minister, and together we will carry out a social revolution. "... Che replied: "You're crazy, Mial, you can't make a revolution without shooting!".

Che Guevara - Victory will be ours

From Machu Picchu we went to the mountain village of Huambo, stopping on the way to the leper colony of the Peruvian communist doctor Hugo Pesce. He warmly welcomed the travelers, introduced them to the methods of treating leprosy known to him, and wrote a letter of recommendation to a large leper colony near the city of San Pablo in the province of Loreto in Peru.

From the village of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River, having settled on a ship, the travelers set off to the port of Iquitos on the shores of the Amazon. In Iquitos, they were delayed because of Ernesto's asthma, which forced him to go to the hospital for a while. Having reached the leper colony in San Pablo, Granado and Guevara were cordially received and invited to treat patients in the center's laboratory. The patients, trying to thank the travelers for their friendly attitude, built a raft for them, calling it "Mambo-Tango". On this raft, Ernesto and Alberto planned to sail to the next point of the route - the Colombian port of Leticia on the Amazon.

On June 21, 1952, having packed their belongings on the raft, they sailed down the Amazon towards Leticia. They photographed a lot and kept diaries. Inadvertently, they sailed past Leticia, because of which they had to acquire a boat and return from Brazilian territory. Looking suspicious and tired, both comrades were imprisoned in Colombia.

Granado said the police chief, being a football fan familiar with Argentina's soccer success, freed the travelers after learning where they were from, in exchange for a promise to coach the local soccer team. The team won the regional championship, and the fans bought them plane tickets to the capital of Colombia - Bogota.

In Colombia at that time, President Laureano Gomez's "violence" was operating, which consisted in the use of force to suppress the discontent of the peasants. Guevara and Granado were again imprisoned, but they were released, promising to immediately leave Colombia. Having received money from fellow students for the journey, Ernesto and Alberto went by bus to Cucuta, near Venezuela, and then crossed the border across the international bridge to San Cristobal in Venezuela.

Granado remained to work in Venezuela at the Caracas leper colony, where he was offered a monthly salary of eight hundred American dollars. Later, working in a leper colony, he will meet his future wife - Julia... Che needed to get to Buenos Aires alone.

Accidentally meeting a distant relative - a horse trader, at the end of July he went to accompany a batch of horses by plane from Caracas to Miami, and from there he had to return on an empty flight via Venezuelan Maracaibo to Buenos Aires. However, Che stayed in Miami for a month. He managed to buy Chinchina the promised lace dress, but in Miami he lived almost without money, spending time in the local library.

In August 1952, Che returned to Buenos Aires, where he began preparing for exams and his thesis on allergies.

In March 1953, Guevara received his doctorate in dermatology as a surgeon. Not wanting to serve in the army, he caused an asthma attack with the help of an ice bath and was declared unfit for military service. Having a diploma in medical education, Che decided to go to the Venezuelan leper colony in Caracas to Granado, but later fate brought them together only in the 1960s in Cuba.

Ernesto went to Venezuela through the capital of Bolivia, La Paz, on a train called the "milk convoy" (the train stopped at all stations, and there the farmers loaded cans of milk).

On April 9, 1952, a revolution took place in Bolivia, in which miners and peasants participated. The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, which came to power, led by President Paz Estensoro, paid compensation to foreign owners, nationalized the tin mines, organized a militia of miners and peasants, and carried out an agrarian reform.

In Bolivia, Che visited the mountain villages of the Indians, the villages of miners, met with members of the government and even worked in the department of information and culture, as well as in the department for the implementation of agrarian reform. He visited the ruins of the Indian sanctuaries of Tiahuanaco, which are located near Lake Titicaca, taking many pictures of the "Gate of the Sun" temple, where the Indians of ancient civilization worshiped the sun god Viracocha.

In La Paz, Ernesto met the lawyer Ricardo Rojo, who persuaded him to leave for Guatemala, but Ernesto agreed to be a companion only to Colombia, since he still had the intention to go to the leper colony of Caracas, where Granado was waiting for him. Rojo flew by plane to the capital of Peru - Lima, and Ernesto by bus with his fellow traveler, a student from Argentina Carlos Ferrer, circled Lake Titicaca and arrived in the Peruvian city of Cuzco, where Ernesto had already visited during his previous trip in 1952.

After being stopped by the border guards (they took away brochures and books about the revolution in Bolivia), they arrived in Lima, where they met with Rojo. Since it was dangerous to stay in Lima due to the political situation in the country during the reign of General Audria, travelers - Rojo, Ferrer and Ernesto - traveled by bus along the Pacific coast to Ecuador, reaching the border of this country on September 26, 1953.

In Guayaquil, they applied for a visa at the Colombian mission, but the consul demanded that they have air tickets to the capital, Bogota, considering it unsafe for foreigners to travel by bus due to the military coup that had just occurred in Colombia (General Rojas Pinilla overthrew President Laureano Gomez). Lacking the funds for air travel, the travelers turned to a local Socialist Party leader with a letter of recommendation, which they had from the future President of Chile, Salvador Allende, and obtained through it free tickets for students on the steamship United Fruit Company from Guayaquil to Panama.

Influenced by Rojo, as well as press reports of the upcoming US invasion of President Arbenz, Ernesto travels to Guatemala. By that time, the Arbenz government had passed a law through the Guatemalan parliament that doubled wages for United Fruit Company workers. 554 thousand hectares of landlords' land were expropriated, including 160 thousand hectares of United Fruit, which caused a sharp negative reaction from the Americans.

From Guayaquil, Ernesto sent a postcard to Alberto Granado: "Baby! I'm going to Guatemala. Then I'll write to you ", after which the connection between them was temporarily interrupted. In Panama, Guevara and Ferrer were delayed as they ran out of money, and Rojo continued on his way to Guatemala. Guevara sold his books and published a number of reports in a local magazine about Machu Picchu and other historical sites in Peru.

In the Costa Rican San Jose, Guevara and Ferrer went by a passing truck, which overturned on the road due to a tropical downpour, after which Ernesto, having injured his left hand, barely owned it for some time. The travelers reached San Jose in early December 1953. There Ernesto met the leader of the Venezuelan Democratic Action Party and the future President of Venezuela, Romulo Betancourt, with whom they sharply disagreed, and the future President of the Dominican Republic, writer Juan Bosch, as well as Cubans - opponents of the dictator Batista.

At the end of 1953, Guevara and his friends from Argentina traveled from San Jose to San Salvador by bus. On December 24, by passing vehicles, they reached the city of Guatemala, the capital of the republic of the same name. Having letters of recommendation to prominent figures of the country and a letter from Lima to the revolutionary Ilda Gadea, Ernesto found Ilda in the Cervantes boarding house, where he settled himself. Common views and interests brought future spouses closer together.

Subsequently Ilda Gadea recalled the impression that Guevara made on her then: “Dr. Ernesto Guevara struck me from the very first conversations with his intelligence, seriousness, his views and knowledge of Marxism ... Coming from a bourgeois family, he, having a doctor's degree in his hands, could easily make a career in his homeland, as they do in our countries all specialists with higher education. Meanwhile, he strove to work in the most backward areas, even for free, in order to heal ordinary people. But most of all I admired his attitude to medicine. He spoke with indignation, based on what he saw in his travels to different countries of South America, about the unsanitary conditions and poverty in which our peoples live. I remember well that we discussed in this connection Archibald Cronin's novel The Citadel and other books that touch upon the theme of the doctor's duty to workers. Referring to these books, Ernesto came to the conclusion that a doctor in our countries should not be a privileged specialist, he should not serve the ruling classes, invent useless medicines for imaginary patients. Of course, by doing so, you can earn substantial income and achieve success in life, but should young conscious specialists of our countries strive for this? Dr. Guevara believed that the physician must devote himself to improving the living conditions of the general public. And this will inevitably lead him to condemn the government systems that dominate in our countries, exploited by oligarchies, where the interference of Yankee imperialism was increasing. ".

In Guatemala, Ernesto met with emigrants from Cuba - supporters of Fidel Castro, among whom were Antonio Lopez (Nico), Mario Dalmau, Dario Lopez - the future participants of the trip on the yacht "Granma".

Wanting to travel as a doctor to the Indian communities in the remote region of Guatemala - the Petain jungle, Ernesto was refused by the Ministry of Health, which required first to undergo a medical certificate confirmation procedure within a year. Accidental earnings, newspaper articles and peddling books (which, according to Ilda Gadea, he read more than sold), allowed him to earn a living. Traveling around Guatemala with a knapsack on his shoulder, he studied the culture of the ancient Maya Indians. Collaborated with the Patriotic Youth of Labor youth organization of the Guatemalan Party of Labor.

On June 17, 1954, the armed groups of Colonel Armas from Honduras invaded Guatemala, the executions of supporters of the Arbenz government and the bombing of the capital and other cities of Guatemala began.

Ernesto, according to Ilda Gadea, asked to be sent to the area of ​​the fighting, and called for the creation of a militia. He was part of the air defense groups of the city during the bombing, helped in the transportation of weapons. Mario Dahlmau claimed that "together with members of the Patriotic Youth of Labor, he carried out guard duty among fires and bomb explosions, exposing himself to mortal danger." Ernesto Guevara was included in the list of "dangerous communists" to be liquidated after the overthrow of Arbenz. The Argentinean ambassador warned him at the Cervantes boarding house about the danger and offered to take refuge in the embassy, ​​where Ernesto took refuge with a number of other Arbenz supporters, after which, with the help of the ambassador, he left the country and went by train to Mexico City.

On September 21, 1954, Guevara arrived in Mexico City and settled in the apartment of a Puerto Rican leader of the Nationalist Party, which advocated the independence of Puerto Rico and was outlawed due to the shooting by her activists in the US Congress. In the same apartment lived the Peruvian Lucio (Luis) de la Puente, who later, on October 23, 1965, was shot dead in a battle with anti-guerrilla "rangers" in one of the mountainous regions of Peru.

Che and his friend Patoho, having no stable means of subsistence, hunted for pictures in parks. Che recalled this time like this: “We were both running aground ... Patojo didn't have a penny, and I only had a few pesos. I bought a camera and we smuggled pictures in parks. A Mexican man, the owner of a small darkroom, helped us to print the cards. We got to know Mexico City, walking up and down, trying to foist our clients with our unimportant photos. How many had to convince, persuade that the child we photographed had a very cute look and that, really, it was worth paying a peso for such a charm. We lived on this craft for several months. Little by little, our affairs were getting better ... ".

Having written the article “I saw the overthrow of Arbenz,” Che, however, did not manage to get a job as a journalist. At this time, Ilda Gadea came from Guatemala, and they got married. Che began selling books from the Fondo de Cultura Economics publishing house, got a job as a night watchman at a book exhibition, continuing to read books. In the city hospital, he was admitted on a competition basis to work in the allergy department. He lectured on medicine at the National University, began to engage in scientific work (in particular, experiments on cats) at the Institute of Cardiology and the laboratory of a French hospital.

On February 15, 1956, Ilda gave birth to a daughter, who was named after her mother Ildita. In an interview with a correspondent for the Mexican magazine Siempre in September 1959, Che argued: “When my daughter was born in Mexico City, we could register her as Peruvian by her mother, or Argentine by her father. Both that, and another would be logical, because we were, as it were, passing through Mexico. Nevertheless, my wife and I decided to register her as a Mexican as a token of gratitude and respect for the people who sheltered us in the bitter hour of defeat and exile. ".

Raul Roa, a Cuban publicist and opponent of Batista, who later became a long-term foreign minister in socialist Cuba, recalled his Mexican meeting with Guevara: “I met Che one night, at the house of his compatriot Ricardo Rojo. He has just arrived from Guatemala, where he took part in the revolutionary and anti-imperialist movement for the first time. He was still acutely worried about defeat. Che seemed and was young. His image was imprinted in my memory: a clear mind, ascetic pallor, asthmatic breathing, a bulging forehead, thick hair, decisive judgments, an energetic chin, calm movements, a sensitive, penetrating look, a sharp thought, speaks calmly, laughs loudly ... started working in the allergy department of the Institute of Cardiology. We talked about Argentina, Guatemala and Cuba, looked at their problems through the prism of Latin America. Even then, Che towered over the narrow horizon of Creole nationalists and reasoned from the perspective of a continental revolutionary. This Argentine doctor, unlike many emigrants who are concerned only with the fate of their country, thought not so much about Argentina as about Latin America as a whole, trying to find its "weakest link".

Comandante Che

At the end of June 1955, two Cubans, one of whom turned out to be Nico Lopez, Guevara's acquaintance from Guatemala, came to the Mexico City hospital to see the doctor on duty, Ernesto Guevara.

He told Che that the Cuban revolutionaries who attacked the Moncada barracks had been released from a prison prison on the island of Pinos under an amnesty and began to flock to Mexico City to prepare an armed expedition to Cuba. A few days later, an acquaintance with Raul Castro, in which Che found a like-minded person, later saying about him: “It seems to me that this one is not like the others. At least he speaks better than others, besides, he thinks. " At this time, Fidel, while in the United States, collected money from emigrants from Cuba for the expedition. Speaking in New York at a rally against Batista, Fidel said: "I can inform you with full responsibility that in 1956 we will gain freedom or become martyrs.".

The first meeting between Fidel and Che took place on July 9, 1955 at the safe house of Fidel's supporters. It discussed the details of the upcoming hostilities in the Cuban province of Oriente. Fidel argued that Che at that time “had more mature revolutionary ideas than me. Ideologically, theoretically, it was more developed. Compared to me, he was a more advanced revolutionary. " By the morning Che, whom Fidel made, in his words, the impression of an "exceptional person", was enrolled as a doctor in the detachment of the future expedition.

In September 1955, another military coup took place in Argentina, and President Peron was overthrown. Emigrants - opponents of the ousted dictator were invited to return to their homeland, which was used by many Argentines living in Mexico City. Che refused to return, as he was carried away by the upcoming expedition to Cuba.

Mexican Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo owned a small printing house that printed documents from the July 26 Movement, which was headed by Fidel. In addition, Arsacio was engaged in the physical preparation of the participants of the upcoming expedition to Cuba, being an athlete-wrestler: long hikes over rough terrain, judo, for which an athletics hall was rented. Arsacio recalled: “In addition, the children listened to lectures on geography, history, political situation and other topics. Sometimes I myself stayed to listen to these lectures. The guys also went to the cinema to watch films about the war. "

Colonel of the Spanish army Alberto Bayo, a veteran of the war with the Francoists and author of the manual "150 Questions to the Partisan", was engaged in military training of the group. Initially asking for a fee of 100,000 Mexican pesos (or $ 8,000), he then halved it. However, believing in the capabilities of his students, he not only did not take a fee, but also sold his furniture factory, transferring the proceeds to Fidel's group. The Colonel purchased the Santa Rosa hacienda 35 km from the capital from Erasmo Rivera, a former partisan of Pancho Villa, for US $ 26,000 as a new base for training the detachment.

Che, while training with the group, taught how to dress, treat fractures and wounds, and injections, having received more than a hundred injections in one of the sessions - one or more from each of the trained members of the group.

On June 22, 1956, Mexican police arrested on a street in Mexico City. Then an ambush was set up at the safe house. At the Santa Rosa ranch, the police captured Che and some of his comrades. The arrest of the Cuban conspirators and the participation of Colonel Bajo in this case were reported in the press. Subsequently, it turned out that the arrests were carried out on a tip from a provocateur who penetrated the ranks of the conspirators. On June 26, the Mexican newspaper Excelsior published a list of those arrested, including the name of Ernesto Che Guevara Serna, who has been described as an "international communist agitator" with reference to his role in Guatemala under President Arbenz.

Former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, former Maritime Minister Heriberto Jara, labor leader Lombardo Toledano, artists Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, as well as cultural figures and scientists interceded for the prisoners. A month later, Mexican authorities released Fidel Castro and the rest of the prisoners, with the exception of Ernesto Guevara and Cuban Calixto Garcia, who were accused of illegally entering the country. After leaving prison, Fidel Castro continued his preparations for the expedition to Cuba, collecting money, buying weapons and organizing secret appearances. The training of the fighters continued in small groups in various parts of the country. A yacht was purchased from the Swedish ethnographer Werner Green "Granma" for 12 thousand dollars.

Che feared that Fidel's worries about getting him out of prison would delay his sailing, but Fidel told him: "I won't leave you!" The Mexican police also arrested Che's wife, but after a while Ilda and Che were released. Che spent 57 days in prison. The police continued to spy on the Cubans, broke into safe houses. The press wrote with might and main about Fidel's preparations for sailing to Cuba.

Due to the increased frequency of raids and the possibility of handing over the group, the yacht and the transmitter to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City for the announced reward of 15 thousand dollars, preparations were accelerated. Fidel gave the order to isolate the alleged provocateur and concentrate in the port of Tuspana in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Granma was moored. Che ran into Ilda's house with a medical bag, kissed his sleeping daughter, wrote a farewell letter to his parents, and left for the port. Soon Ilda returned to Peru, later giving Guevara their common daughter Ildita.

At 2 am on November 25, 1956, in Tuspan, the detachment landed on the Granma. The police received a "mordida" (bribe) and were absent from the pier. 82 people with weapons and equipment boarded the overcrowded yacht, which was designed for 8-12 people. At that time there was a storm at sea and it was raining, "Granma" with the lights extinguished headed for Cuba.

Che recalled that "Out of 82 people, only two or three sailors, and four or five passengers did not suffer from seasickness"... The vessel gave a leak, as it turned out later, due to the open tap in the lavatory, however, trying to eliminate the draft of the vessel when the pump was not working for pumping out, they managed to throw canned food overboard.

On the Granma, Che suffered from asthma, but, according to Roberto Roque Nunez, he encouraged others and joked. Ladislao Ondino Pino was appointed captain of the vessel and Roberto Roque Nunez as navigator. The latter went overboard, falling from the roof of the captain's cabin and for several hours they were looking for him in the ocean and then taken out of the water. The yacht often lost its course.

The arrival time of the group in the village of Nikero near Santiago was calculated for November 30. On this day, at 5:40 am, Fidel's supporters, led by Frank Pais, seized government offices in the capital and took to the streets, but could not keep the situation under control.

"Granma" arrived to the coast of Cuba only on December 2, 1956 in the Las Coloradas region of the Oriente province, and immediately ran aground off the coast. A boat was launched into the water, but it sank. A group of 82 people wade to the shore, up to their shoulders in the water; weapons and a small amount of food and medicine were brought to land.

The landing site, which Raul Castro later compared to a "shipwreck", rushed boats and planes subordinate to Batista units, and Fidel Castro's group came under fire. Around 35,000 armed soldiers, tanks, 15 Coast Guard ships, 10 warships, 78 fighters and transport aircraft awaited them.

For a long time, the group made their way along the boggy coast, which is a mangrove thicket. In the middle of the day on December 5, in the area of ​​Alegria de Pio (Holy Joy), the group was attacked by government aircraft. Half of the detachment's soldiers were killed in battle under enemy fire, and about 20 people were captured. The next day, the survivors gathered in a hut near the Sierra Maestra. Fidel said: “The enemy defeated us, but failed to destroy us. We will fight and win this war. "... Guajiro - the peasants of Cuba friendlyly received the members of the detachment and sheltered them in their homes.

“Somewhere in the forest, on long nights (with the sunset our inaction began) we made daring plans. They dreamed of battles, major operations, and victory. These were happy hours. Together with everyone, I enjoyed for the first time in my life cigars, which I learned to smoke to ward off annoying mosquitoes. Since then, the aroma of Cuban tobacco has eaten into me. And my head was spinning, either from the strong "havana", or from the audacity of our plans - one is more desperate than the other ", - recalled Ernesto Che Guevara.

The Cuban communist writer Pablo de la Torriente Brau wrote that back in the 19th century in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Cuban independence fighters found a comfortable refuge. “Woe to the one who raises the sword to these heights. A rebel with a rifle, hiding behind an indestructible cliff, can fight here against ten. The machine-gunner, entrenched in the gorge, will hold back the onslaught of a thousand soldiers. Let not those who go to war to these peaks rely on airplanes! The caves will shelter the rebels. "

Fidel and the members of the expedition to Granma, as well as Che, were not familiar with this area.

On January 22, 1957, at Arroyo de Infierno (Infernal Creek), the detachment defeated the Casquito detachment (Batista's soldiers). Five casquitos were killed, the detachment suffered no losses.

“Dear old woman!

I am writing to you these flaming Martian lines from Cuban Manigua. I'm alive and thirsty for blood. It seems that I really am a soldier (at least I'm dirty and ragged), for I write on a traveling plate, with a gun on my shoulder and a new acquisition in my lips - a cigar. It turned out to be not easy. You already know that after seven days of sailing on the Granma, where it was impossible even to breathe, we, through the navigator's fault, ended up in the stinking thickets, and our misfortunes continued until we were attacked in the already famous Alegria de Pio and not scattered in different directions, like doves. There I was wounded in the neck, and I survived only thanks to my cat's happiness, for a machine-gun bullet hit the box with ammunition, which I was carrying on my chest, and from there ricocheted into my neck. I wandered for several days in the mountains, considering myself dangerously wounded, except for a wound in my neck, my chest still hurt a lot. Of the guys you know, only Jimmy Hirtzel died, he surrendered, and he was killed. I, along with your friends Almeida and Ramirito, spent seven days of terrible hunger and thirst, until we got out of the encirclement and, with the help of the peasants, joined Fidel (they say, although this has not yet been confirmed, that poor Nyiko also died). We had to work hard to reorganize into a detachment and arm ourselves. Then we attacked the army post, we killed and wounded several soldiers, others were taken prisoner. The killed remained at the battle site. Some time later, we captured three more soldiers and disarmed them. If we add to this that we had no losses and that in the mountains we are at home, then you will understand how demoralized the soldiers are, they will never be able to surround us. Naturally, the struggle has not yet been won, there are still many battles ahead, but the arrow of the scales is already tilting in our direction, and this advantage will increase every day.

Now, speaking about you, I would like to know if you are still in the same house where I am writing to you, and how you live there, especially “the most tender petal of love”? Hug her and kiss her as hard as her bones will allow. I was in such a hurry that I left photos of you and your daughter in Pancho's house. Send them to me. You can write to me at your uncle's address and in the name of Patoho. Letters may be a little delayed, but I think they will reach ".

In February, Che knocked down an attack of malaria and then another attack of asthma. During one of the skirmishes, the peasant Crespo, carrying Che on his back, carried him out from under enemy fire, since Che could not move on his own. Che was left at the farmer's house with an accompanying soldier and was able to overcome one of the passages, holding onto tree trunks and leaning on the butt of a gun, in ten days, using the adrenaline that the farmer was able to get.

In the Sierra Maestra mountains, Che, who suffered from asthma, periodically lay down in peasant huts so as not to hinder the movement of the column. He was often seen with a book or a notebook in his hands.

A member of the detachment, Rafael Chao, claimed that Che did not shout at anyone, and did not allow mockery, but he often used strong words in conversation and was very harsh, "when necessary." “I have never known a less selfish person. If he had only one Boniato tuber, he was ready to give it to his comrades. ".

During the war, Che kept a diary, which later served as the basis for his famous book "Episodes of the Revolutionary War"... Over time, the detachment managed to establish contact with the organization "July 26 Movement" in Santiago and Havana. The location of the detachment in the mountains was visited by activists and leaders of the underground: Frank Pais, Armando Hart, Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, supplies were established.

In order to refute the reports of Batista about the defeat of the "robbers" - "forrachidos", a correspondent of the New York Times arrived at the detachment's location on February 17, 1957. He met with Fidel and a week later published a report with photographs of Fidel and the soldiers of the detachment. In this report, he wrote: “Apparently, General Batista has no reason to hope to suppress the Castro rebellion. He can only count on the fact that one of the columns of soldiers will accidentally come across the young leader and his headquarters and destroy them, but this is unlikely to happen ... ".

In May 1957, a reinforcement ship was planned to arrive from the USA (Miami). To divert attention from their landing, Fidel gave the order to storm the barracks in the village of Uvero, 50 km from Santiago. In addition, this opened up the possibility of an exit from the Sierra Maestra into the valley of the Oriente province. Che took part in the battle for Uvero and described it in Episodes of the Revolutionary War.

On May 27, 1957, the headquarters was assembled, where Fidel announced the upcoming battle. Having started the hike in the evening, during the night we walked about 16 kilometers along a winding mountain road, spending about eight hours on the way, often stopping for the sake of safety, especially in dangerous areas. A wooden barracks was located on the seashore, it was guarded by posts. During the attack, it was forbidden to shoot at living quarters where women and children were. The wounded soldiers were given first aid, leaving two of their seriously wounded in the care of the doctor of the enemy garrison.

Having loaded a truck with equipment and medicines, we went to the mountains. Che pointed out that two hours and forty-five minutes elapsed from the first shot to the capture of the barracks. The attackers lost 15 killed and wounded, and the enemy - 19 wounded and 14 killed.

The victory strengthened the morale of the detachment. Subsequently, other small enemy garrisons were destroyed at the foot of the Sierra Maestra.

Che Guevara compiled his own Molotov cocktail recipe. It consisted of 3/4 of gasoline and 1/4 of oil. Incendiary mixtures were often used by guerrillas against buildings, light vehicles and enemy infantry. The recipe for the Molotov Che Guevara cocktail was distinguished by its simplicity in manufacture and the availability of components.

Relations with local peasants did not always go smoothly: anti-communist propaganda was carried out on the radio and in church services. In a feuilleton published in January 1958 in the first issue of the insurgent newspaper El Cubano Libre, signed "The Sniper", Che wrote about the myths imposed by the ruling regime: "Communists are all those who take up arms, for they are tired of poverty, in whatever country it happens.".

To suppress robberies and anarchy, to improve relations with the local population, a discipline commission was created in the detachment, endowed with the powers of a military tribunal. The pseudo-revolutionary gang of the Chinese Chang was liquidated. Che noted: "At that difficult time, it was necessary with a firm hand to suppress any violation of revolutionary discipline and not allow anarchy to develop in the liberated regions."... Executions were also carried out on the facts of desertion from the detachment. Medical assistance was provided to the prisoners, Che strictly monitored so that they were not offended. As a rule, they were released.

On June 5, 1957, Fidel Castro allocated a column under the leadership of Che, consisting of 75 fighters (for conspiracy purposes, it was named the fourth column). Che was awarded the rank of major. In July, Fidel, together with representatives of the bourgeois opposition, signed a manifesto on the formation of the Revolutionary Civil Front, the demands of which included the replacement of Batista by an elected president and an agrarian reform, which implied the division of vacant land. Che considered these oppositionists "closely associated with the northern rulers."

Fearing police harassment, Batista's opponents joined the ranks of the rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Hotbeds of uprising arose in the Escambray mountains, the Sierra del Cristal and in the Baracoa region under the leadership of the Revolutionary Directorate, the July 26 Movement and individual communists.

In October in Miami, bourgeois politicians established the Liberation Council, proclaiming Felipe Pasos as interim president and issuing a manifesto to the people. Fidel rejected the Miami Pact, considering it pro-American.

In a letter to Fidel Che wrote: “Once again, I congratulate you on your statement. I told you that it will always be your merit that you have proved the possibility of an armed struggle enjoying the support of the people. Now you are embarking on an even more wonderful path that will lead to power as a result of the armed struggle of the masses. ".

By the end of 1957, the rebel forces dominated the Sierra Maestra, but did not descend into the valleys. Foodstuffs such as beans, corn and rice were bought from local farmers. Medicines were delivered by underground workers from the city. The meat was confiscated from large cattle traders and those accused of treason. Some of the confiscated items were transferred to local peasants.

Che organized sanitary posts, field hospitals, workshops for repairing weapons, making handicraft shoes, duffel bags, uniforms, and cigarettes. On the initiative of Che and under his editorship, the newspaper El Cubano Libre (Free Cuba) began to appear in the Sierra Maestra, the first issues of which were handwritten and then printed on a hectograph.

From March 1958, the guerrillas moved to more active operations, starting to operate outside the Sierra Maestra. Since the end of the summer, communication and cooperation have been established with the Cuban communists. A general offensive began, during which a column of partisans under the command of Che was instructed to capture the middle of the island, the province of Las Villas and the key city on the way to Santiago - Santa Clara, uniting and coordinating for this all anti-Batista forces.

On August 21, by order of Fidel Che was appointed "commander of all rebel units operating in the province of Las Villas, both in the countryside and in the cities" with the task of collecting taxes and spending them on military needs, administering justice and enforcing agrarian laws The rebel army, as well as the organization of military units and the appointment of officers. At the same time, he publicly announced: “Those who do not want to risk, can leave the column. He will not be considered a coward. " The majority expressed their readiness to follow him.

Government propaganda called for national unity and harmony as strikes and insurgencies expanded in Cuba's cities.

In March 1958, the US government announced an embargo on the delivery of weapons to Batista's forces, although the armament and refueling of government aircraft at Guantanamo Bay continued for some time.

At the end of 1958, according to the constitution (statute) announced by Batista, presidential elections were to take place. In the Sierra Maestra, no one spoke openly about communism or socialism, and the reforms that Fidel openly proposed, such as the elimination of latifundia, the nationalization of transport, electric companies and other important enterprises, were of a moderate nature, which was not denied even by pro-American politicians.

By October 16, after a 600-kilometer march and frequent skirmishes with troops, Che's column reached the Escambray Mountains in the province of Las Villas, opening a new front. Then he met his second wife, an underground worker Aleida March. One of the first measures Che promulgated the law on agrarian reform, which exempted small tenants from payments to the landlord and opened a school, which ensured the sympathy of the peasantry.

From the second half of December, the rebels launched a decisive offensive, liberating a new city almost every day. On December 28, the fighting for Santa Clara began.In the middle of the day on January 1, the remnants of the garrison surrendered. On the same day, the dictator Batista fled the country. On January 2, the partisans, in particular, units under the command of Che Guevara entered Havana without a fight, where they were thunderously welcomed by the population.

From the moment Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, repressions began against his political opponents.

Initially, it was announced that only "war criminals" - the functionaries of the Batista regime, directly responsible for torture and executions, would be tried.

Castro's public trials were described by the American newspaper The New York Times as a parody of justice: “On the whole, the procedure is disgusting. The defense lawyer did not try to defend at all, instead he asked the court to excuse him for protecting the prisoner. "

Not only political opponents, but also the allies of the Cuban communists in the revolutionary struggle - anarchists - were repressed. After the insurgents occupied the city of Santiago de Cuba on January 12, 1959, a show trial was held there over 72 police officers, etc. persons, one way or another connected with the regime and accused of "war crimes". When the defense lawyer began to rebut the allegations of the prosecution, presiding officer Raul Castro said: “If one is guilty, everyone is guilty. They are sentenced to be shot! " All 72 were shot.

All legal guarantees against the accused have been lifted "Partisan law"... The investigative report was considered incontrovertible evidence of the crime. The lawyer simply admitted to the charges, but asked the government to show generosity and mitigate the punishment.

Che Guevara personally instructed the judges: “You should not arrange red tape with legal proceedings. This is a revolution, the evidence is secondary. We must act with conviction. They are all a gang of criminals and murderers. In addition, it should be remembered that there is an appeals tribunal "... The Appeals Tribunal, chaired by Che himself, did not overturn a single sentence.

The executions in the Havana fortress-prison of La Cabana were personally ordered by Che Guevara, who was appointed commandant of the prison and presided over the Appeals Tribunal. After Castro's supporters came to power in Cuba, more than eight thousand people were shot, many without trial. Soon after the revolution, Che changed his signature: instead of the usual "Doctor Guevara" - "Major Ernesto Che Guevara" or simply "Che".

On February 9, 1959, by presidential decree, Che was proclaimed a citizen of Cuba with the rights of a born Cuban (before him, only one person was awarded this honor, the Dominican General Maximo Gomez in the 19th century). As an officer in the rebel army, he was given a salary of 125 pesos (dollars).

From June 12 to September 5, Che Guevara made his first foreign trip as an official, visiting Egypt (where he met and established friendly relations, which lasted until the end of his life, with Brazilian President Janiu Cuadrus), Sudan, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia , Japan, Yugoslavia, Morocco and Spain.

On October 7, he was appointed head of the industry department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), retaining the military post of head of the training department of the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

On February 5, 1960, at the opening of the Soviet exhibition of the achievements of science, technology and culture, he took part in official negotiations for the first time and met with the USSR delegation headed by A.I. Mikoyan.

In May, his book Guerrilla Warfare was published in Havana. As a member of the top leadership of the "July 26 Movement" after its merger with the People's Socialist Party and the "March 13 Revolutionary Directorate" in the second half of 1961, he entered the newly formed "United Revolutionary Organizations" (URO) as a member of the National Leadership, Secretariat and ORO Economic Commission. After the transformation of the ORO into the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, he became a member of its National Leadership and Secretariat.

October 22 - December 19, at the head of a government delegation, he visited the USSR, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, the PRC and the DPRK, having agreed on long-term purchases of Cuban sugar and the provision of technical and financial assistance to Cuba. On November 7, he attended the military parade and demonstration of workers in Moscow, standing on the Mausoleum.

On February 23, 1961, he was appointed Minister of Industry and a concurrent member of the Central Planning Council.

On April 17, during the landing of anti-Castro forces at Playa Giron, he leads the troops in the province of Pinar del Rio.

In August 1961, during negotiations with a representative of the American delegation during a visit to Uruguay, he offered to compensate American owners for the cost of property confiscated in Cuba, as well as to reduce revolutionary propaganda in Latin America in exchange for ending the blockade and anti-Cuban actions.

During his second visit to the USSR in August 1962, he agreed on cooperation in the military field.

When ration cards were introduced in Cuba in 1962, Che insisted that his rate should not exceed the usual one received by ordinary citizens.

He took an active personal part in cutting reeds, unloading steamers, building industrial and residential buildings, and landscaping.

In August 1964 he received a diploma from the "Drummer of Communist Labor" for the development of 240 hours of voluntary labor per quarter.

On December 11, 1964, he delivered a major anti-American speech at the 19th UN General Assembly.

Che Guevara believed that he could count on unlimited economic assistance from "fraternal" countries. Che, as a minister of the revolutionary government, learned a lesson from the conflicts with the fraternal countries of the socialist camp. While negotiating support, economic and military cooperation, discussing international politics with Chinese and Soviet leaders, he came to an unexpected conclusion and had the courage to speak out publicly in his famous Algerian speech. It was a real accusatory speech against the non-internationalist policies of the socialist countries. He reproached them for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of trade, similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market, as well as refusing unconditional support, military, including refusing to fight for national liberation, in particular, in the Congo and Vietnam.

Che knew the famous equation very well: the less developed the economy, the greater the role of violence in the formation of a new formation... If in the early 1950s he was jokingly signed under the letters "Stalin II", then after the victory of the revolution I have to prove: "In Cuba there are no conditions for the formation of the Stalinist system."

Moreover, in 1965 Che called him a "great Marxist."

Later Che Guevara will say: “After the revolution, the work is not done by revolutionaries. Technocrats and bureaucrats do it. And they are counter-revolutionaries ".

The sister of Fidel and Raul Castro Juanita, who knew Guevara closely, and who later left for the United States, wrote about him in a biographical book “Fidel and Raoul, my brothers. Secret history ": “Neither the trial nor the investigation mattered to him. He immediately began to shoot, because he was a man without a heart. "

On March 14, 1965, the commander arrives from a long foreign trip to North America and Africa (Egypt) in Havana, and on April 1 he writes farewell letters to parents and children (in particular, he wrote: "Your father was a man who acted according to his views and undoubtedly lived according to his convictions ... Always be able to deeply feel any injustice committed anywhere in the world." and Fidel Castro, in which, among other things, he renounces Cuban citizenship and all posts and wrote that "Now my modest help is required in other countries of the world".

In the spring of 1965 Che leaves Cuba going in an unknown direction.

Che Guevara's last letter to his parents:

“Dear old people!

Again I feel the ribs of Rocinante with my heels, again, donning armor, I set off on the road.

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 is no longer of interest to me; the soldier turned out to be not so bad out of me.

Basically, nothing has changed since then, except that I became much more conscious, my Marxism took root in me and was 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 will call me an adventurer, and that's right. But I'm only a special kind of adventurer, one of the kind who risk their skin to prove their case.

Maybe I will try to do it 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 it does, please accept my last hug.

I loved you dearly, but I didn’t know how to express my love. I am too straightforward in my actions and I think that sometimes I was not understood. Besides, it was not easy to understand me, but this time - believe me. So, the determination that I cultivated with the passion of the artist will force frail legs and tired lungs to act. I will get my way.

Remember sometimes this humble condottier of the XX century.

Kiss Celia, Roberto, Juan Martin and Pototin, Beatrice, everyone.

Your prodigal and incorrigible son Ernesto hugs you tightly. ".

In April 1965, Guevara arrived in the Republic of the Congo, where at this time the fighting continued. He had high hopes for the Congo, he believed that the vast territory of this country, covered with jungle, would provide excellent opportunities for organizing guerrilla warfare.

The operation involved a total of about 150 Cuban volunteers, exclusively blacks. However, from the very beginning, the operation in the Congo was plagued by setbacks. Relations with the local rebels, led by the future (in 1997-2001) President of the country, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, were rather complicated, and Guevara did not have faith in the local leadership.

In the first battle on June 20, the Cuban and rebel forces were defeated. In the future, Guevara came to the conclusion that it was impossible to win the war with such allies, but he continued the operation. The final blow to the Congolese expedition of Guevara was struck in October, when Joseph Kasavubu came to power in the Congo, who put forward initiatives to resolve the conflict. After Kasavubu's statements, Tanzania, which served as a rear base for the Cubans, stopped supporting them. Guevara had no choice but to stop the operation.

At the end of November, he returned to Tanzania and, while at the Cuban embassy, ​​prepared a diary of the operation in the Congo, beginning with the words "This is a story of failure": “Organizational work is not carried out, middle-level personnel are not doing anything, they do not know what they should do and do not inspire confidence in anyone ... Indiscipline and lack of selflessness are the main signs of these fighters. It is unthinkable to win a war with such troops ... What could we do? All Congolese leaders were on the run, and the peasants were increasingly hostile to us. But the realization that we are leaving the area the same way that brought us here, leaving defenseless peasants, was still overwhelming for us. ".

After Tanzania, from February to July 1966, Che was in Czechoslovakia with a changed appearance and under the name of a citizen of Uruguay, Ramon Benitez (first, on treatment from malaria and asthma in a closed sanatorium of the Ministry of Health of the Czechoslovakia in the village of Kamenice, 30 km south of Prague, then to the secret villa of the State Security Service of Czechoslovakia in the nearby village of Ladvi).

According to Fidel Castro, he did not want to return to Cuba, but Castro persuaded Che to secretly return to Cuba to begin preparations for creating a revolutionary hotbed in Latin America.

He left Czechoslovakia on July 19, 1966 through Vienna, Zurich and Moscow in the company of his Cuban associate Fernandez "Pacho" de Oca, who posed as an Argentine businessman. In November 1966, his partisan struggle began in Bolivia.

Rumors about the whereabouts of Guevara did not stop in 1965-1967. Representatives of the Mozambican independence movement FRELIMO reported meeting with Che in Dar es Salaam, during which they refused to offer them assistance in their revolutionary project. Rumors that Guevara led a partisan in Bolivia turned out to be true.

By order of Fidel Castro, the Bolivian communists specially bought land in the spring of 1966 to create bases where partisans were trained under the leadership of Guevara. Guevara's entourage as an agent included Hyde Tamara Bunke Bieder (also known by the nickname "Tanya"), a former Stasi agent who, according to some sources, also worked for the KGB and lived and worked in Cuba since 1961. Rene Barrientos, frightened by the news of the partisans in his country, turned to the CIA for help. Against Guevara, it was decided to use the CIA forces specially trained for anti-partisan actions.

On September 15, 1967, the Bolivian government began to scatter leaflets over the villages of the province of Vallegrande about the $ 4,200 bonus for the head of Che Guevara.

Throughout his stay in Bolivia (11 months), Che kept a diary almost every day, in which he mainly paid attention to the shortcomings, mistakes, miscalculations and weaknesses of the partisans.

Guevara's partisan detachment consisted of about 50 people (of which 17 Cubans, 14 of whom died in Bolivia, Bolivians, Peruvians, Chileans, Argentines) and acted as the Bolivian National Liberation Army (Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia). He was well equipped and conducted several successful operations against regular troops in the difficult mountainous terrain of the Camiri region.

However, in August-September, the Bolivian army was able to eliminate two groups of partisans, killing one of the leaders, "Joaquin".

Despite the brutal nature of the conflict, Guevara provided medical assistance to all wounded Bolivian soldiers who were captured by the guerrillas, and later freed them.

During his last fight in Quebrada del Yuro, Guevara was wounded, his rifle was hit by a bullet that disabled the weapon, and he fired all the cartridges with a pistol. When he, unarmed and wounded, was captured and brought under escort to a school that served as a temporary prison for the partisans by the government forces, he saw several wounded Bolivian soldiers there. Guevara offered to provide them with medical assistance, to which he was refused by a Bolivian officer. Che himself received only an aspirin pill.

Death of Che Guevara

“There was no man whom the CIA feared more than Che Guevara, because he had the capabilities and charisma necessary to lead the fight against political repression of the traditional hierarchies of power in Latin America.” - Philip Agee, CIA agent who fled to Cuba.

Who killed Che Guevara?

Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee turned agent of the CIA's Special Operations Unit, was an advisor to the Bolivian forces during the hunt for Che Guevara in Bolivia. In addition, the 2007 documentary Enemy of My Enemy, directed by Kevin MacDonald, reveals that Nazi criminal Klaus Barbier, known as the Butcher of Lyon, was an advisor and may have helped the CIA prepare the capture of Che Guevara.

On October 7, 1967, the informant Ciro Bustos gave the Bolivian special forces the location of the Che Guevara partisan detachment in the Quebrada del Yuro gorge (he himself, however, denies this).

On October 8, 1967, a local woman told the army that she had heard voices on the river cascades in the Quebrada del Yuro gorge, closer to where it merges with the San Antonio River. It is not known whether this was the same woman whom Che's detachment had previously paid 50 pesos for silence (Rojo, 218). In the morning, several groups of Bolivian rangers crashed along the gorge in which the woman heard Che's detachment, and took advantageous positions (Harris, 126).

At noon, one of the units from General Prado's brigade, who had just finished training under the guidance of advisers from the CIA, met with fire Che's unit, killing two soldiers and injuring many (Harris, 127).

At 13:30 they surrounded the remnants of the detachment with 650 soldiers and captured the wounded Che Guevara at the moment when one of the Bolivian partisans, Simeon Cuba Sarabia "Willie", tried to carry him away. Che Guevara's biographer John Lee Anderson wrote about the moment of Che's arrest from the words of Bolivian sergeant Bernardino Juanca: twice wounded Che, whose weapon was broken, allegedly shouted: "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara, and I am worth more alive than dead ".

Che Guevara and his men were tied up and on the evening of October 8 were escorted to a dilapidated adobe hut that served as a school in the nearby village of La Higuera. For the next half day, Che refused to answer the questions of the Bolivian officers and spoke only with the Bolivian soldiers.

One of these soldiers, helicopter pilot Jaime Nino de Guzman, wrote that Che Guevara looked terrible.

According to Guzman, Che had a through wound in his right shin, his hair was muddy, his clothes were torn, his legs were dressed in rough leather socks. Despite his tired look, recalls Guzman, "Che held his head high, looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only to smoke." Guzman says that the arrested man "liked him" and gave him a small bag of tobacco for his pipe.

Later, on the same evening on October 8, despite his tied hands, Che Guevara hit the Bolivian officer Espinosa against the wall after he entered the school and tried to rip the pipe out of the mouth of the smoking Che as a souvenir for himself.

In another case of disobedience, Che Guevara spat in the face of the Bolivian Rear Admiral Ugarteche, who tried to ask him questions several hours before his execution. Che Guevara spent the night from 8 to 9 October on the floor of the same school. Beside him were the bodies of two of his killed comrades.

On the morning of the next day, October 9, Che Guevara asked to be allowed to see the school teacher of the village, 22-year-old Julia Cortez. Cortez would later say that she found Che "a handsome man with a soft ironic gaze" and that during their conversation she realized that she "could not look him in the eye" because his "gaze was unbearable, piercing and so calm."

During the conversation, Che Guevara noticed Cortez that the school was in poor condition, said that it was anti-pedagogical to teach poor schoolchildren in such conditions, while government officials were driving Mercedes, and said: "This is precisely why we are fighting against this."

On the same day, October 9, at 12:30, the order of the high command from La Paz came over the radio. The message said: "Proceed with the destruction of Senor Guevara."

The order, signed by the president of the military government of Bolivia, Rene Barrientes Ortugno, was transmitted in encrypted form to CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. He entered the room and said to Che Guevara: "Comandante, I'm sorry." The execution order was passed on despite the desire of the US government to transport Che Guevara to Panama for further interrogation.

The executioner volunteered to be Mario Teran, a 31-year-old sergeant of the Bolivian army, who personally wished to kill Che Guevara in revenge for his three friends killed in earlier battles with Che Guevara's detachment. To match the wounds with the story the Bolivian government planned to present to the public, Felix Rodriguez ordered Teran to aim carefully so that it looked as if Guevara had been killed in action.

Gary Prado, the Bolivian general who commanded the army that captured Che Guevara, said that the reason for the execution of the commander was the high risk of his escape from prison, and that the execution was canceled by a trial that would have brought the world's attention to Che Guevara and Cuba. In addition, at the trial, negative for the Bolivian authorities moments of cooperation between the President of Bolivia with the CIA and Nazi criminals could have surfaced.

30 minutes before the execution, Felix Rodriguez tried to ask Che where the other wanted rebels were, but he refused to answer. Rodriguez, with the help of other soldiers, put Che on his feet and took him out of the school to show the soldiers and take photos with him. One of the soldiers filmed Che Guevara surrounded by soldiers of the Bolivian army. After that, Rodriguez took Che back to school and told him quietly that he would be executed. Che Guevara responded by asking Rodriguez who he was - an American of Mexican or Puerto Rican descent, making it clear that he knew why he did not speak Bolivian Spanish. Rodriguez replied that he was born in Cuba but emigrated to the United States and is currently a CIA agent. Che Guevara only grinned in response and refused to continue talking to him.

A little later, a few minutes before the execution, one of the soldiers guarding Che asked him if he was thinking about his immortality. "No," Che replied, "I am thinking of the immortality of the revolution."

After this conversation, Sergeant Teran entered the hut and immediately ordered all the other soldiers to leave. One on one with Teran, Che Guevara said to the executioner: “I know you came to kill me. Shoot. Do it. Shoot me, coward! You will only kill a person! ".

While Che's words, Teran hesitated, then started fire from his M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, hitting Che in the arms and legs. For a few seconds, Guevara crumpled on the ground in pain, biting his hand so as not to scream. Teran shot several more times, fatally wounding Che in the chest.

According to Rodriguez, the death of Che Guevara came at 13:10 local time. In total, Teran fired nine bullets at Che: five in the legs, one each in the right shoulder, arm and chest, the last bullet hit the throat.

Dead Che Guevara

A month before the execution, Che Guevara wrote himself an epitaph, which contained the words: "Even if death comes unexpectedly, let it be desired, such that our battle cry can reach the hearing ear, and the other hand will reach out to take our weapon.".

The body of the shot Guevara was tied to the skids of a helicopter and taken to the nearby town of Vallegrande, where it was paraded to the press. After a military surgeon amputated and placed Che's hands in a jar with formalin (in order to confirm the identification of the victim's fingerprints), Bolivian army officers took the body in an unknown direction and refused to say where it was buried.

On October 15, Fidel Castro informed the public about the death of Guevara. The death of Guevara was recognized as a heavy blow to the socialist revolutionary movement in Latin America and around the world.

On July 1, 1995, in an interview with Che's biographer John Lee Anderson, Bolivian general Mario Vargas said that "he participated in Che's burial and that the body of the commander and his friends were buried in a mass grave next to a dirt airstrip outside the mountain town of Vallegrande in Central Bolivia."

Anderson's article in the New York Times led to a two-year search for the remains of the guerrillas.

In 1997, the remains of a body with amputated arms were exhumed from under an airstrip near Vallegrande. The body was identified as belonging to Guevara and returned to Cuba.

On October 16, 1997, the remains of Guevara and six of his comrades, killed during the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia, were reburied with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where he won the decisive battle for the Cuban revolution.

Che Guevara's family

Father - Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900, Buenos Aires - 1987, Havana).

Mother - Celia de la Serna and Llosa (1908, Buenos Aires - 1965, Buenos Aires).

Sister - Celia (born 1929), architect.

Brother - Roberto (born 1932), lawyer.

Sister - Anna Maria (born 1934), architect.

Brother - Juan Martin (born 1943), designer.

First wife (1955-1959) - Peruvian Ilda Gadea (1925-1974), economist and revolutionary. Married daughter Ilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea (1956, Mexico City - 1995, Havana), her son, grandson Che, Kanek Sanchez Guevara (1974, Havana - 2015, Oaxaca, Mexico), writer and designer, Cuban dissident emigrated to Mexico in 1996 year.

Born in marriage:

daughter Aleida Guevara March (born 1960), pediatrician and political activist
son of Camilo Guevara March (born 1962), lawyer, employee of the Cuban Ministry of Fisheries
daughter Celia Guevara March (born 1963), veterinarian
son of Ernesto Guevara March (born 1965), lawyer.

Bibliography of Che Guevara

Che Guevara E. Obras. 1957-1967. T. I-II. La Habana: Casa de las Americas, 1970. - (Collección nuestra America)
Che Guevara E. Escritos y discursos. T. 1-9. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977
Che Guevara E. Diario de un combatiente
Che Guevara E. Articles, speeches, letters. M .: Kulturnaya Revolyutsiya, 2006. ISBN 5-902764-06-8
Che Guevara E. "Episodes of the Revolutionary War" M .: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, 1974
Che Guevara E. Diary of a motorcyclist. Translated from Spanish by V.V.Simonov. SPb .: RedFish; Amphora, 2005. ISBN 5-483-00121-4
Che Guevara E. Diary of a motorcyclist. Translated from Spanish by A. Vedyushkin. Cherdantsevo (Sverdlovsk region): IP "Klepikov M. V.", 2005. ISBN 5-91007-001-0
Che Guevara E. Bolivian Diary (inaccessible link from 14-05-2013
Che Guevara E. Guerrilla war
Che Guevara E. Guerrilla warfare as a method
Che Guevara E. "Message to the Nations of the World, Sent to the Conference of Three Continents"
Che Guevara E. Cuba and the Kennedy Plan
Che Guevara E. Economic views of Ernesto Che Guevara
Che Guevara E. Speech at the Second Afro-Asian Economic Conference
Che Guevara E. "Stone (Story)"
Che Guevara E. “Letter from Che Guevara to Fidel Castro. Havana, April 1, 1965 "
Che Guevara E. Letter to Armando Hart Davalos
Che Guevara E. University reform and revolution.

Nowadays, you can meet young people in T-shirts with the image of Che Guevara, find backpacks with his portrait and other items with his photograph. Why is he so popular? Who is Che Guevara? His biography will give answers to these questions.

Full name - Ernesto Raphael Guevara Lynch de la Serna. This man became a famous revolutionary in Latin America and was awarded the title of Commander in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. According to some sources, he used the nickname Che to emphasize his Argentine origin; and according to others, he received it in Mexico. The word "che" was often used as an interjection in Argentina, which meant "friend"

Che Guevara's personality

Who is Ernesto Che Guevara? Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. Since childhood, he grew up an enthusiastic, intelligent and inquisitive person. The joy of his life was overshadowed only by asthma, which later helped him avoid military service. From the age of 4, the boy became addicted to reading books and politics. I read Marx, Lenin, France, Verne, Dumas, London, Hugo, Gorky, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Freud. He was keenly interested in the events of World War II and social life in America. At the same time he loved painting and poetry. Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine.

The hobbies of childhood and adolescence shaped the character of the future revolutionary. Ernesto was a harsh but courageous man, caustic in taunts, but a loyal and devoted comrade, romantic but firm.

Crucial moment

Traveling was Che Guevara's great passion. He made an 8-month trip to Latin America with his friend and friend Alberto Granado, a doctor of biochemistry. Together they traveled to Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Seeing the suffering of the common people, they dreamed of devoting their lives to the treatment of lepers.

Ernesto was saddened by the downtroddenness and need of the common people, the venality and cruelty of the authorities, and he began to think about how he could help people. He pondered a lot about this, began to be active in politics. Gradually, Guevara came to the conclusion that the only thing that could somehow change the situation was a social revolution. His active actions did not leave the US authorities unattended: they began to support the rebels in Guatemala and accused the president of trying to create communism.

Guevara offered the government to arm the people and fight back, but Arbenz could not withstand the onslaught and resigned in June 1954. Che Guevara had to move to Mexico - the most free country in Latin America at that time. Here there was a fatal meeting with the Cuban revolutionaries. Guevara met Fidel Castro, and they found a lot in common in their views and opinions. Che Guevara was preparing to take part in the Cuban revolution and was ready to risk everything for its success.

Merits of Che Guevara

Who is Ernesto Che Guevara in the Cuban Revolution? He is its direct participant and actor. On December 2, 1956, he, together with a small group of Cuban revolutionaries, fought the troops of the dictator Batista, but was defeated. Only a few survived, including Guevara. They were able to take refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Nevertheless, the battle did not stop, and in the summer of 1957 the partisans began fighting in the valleys. The fighters for justice earned the trust of the common people, and soon the military ranks began to replenish with new rebels ...

In March 1958, Castro began to advance with his army. In this battle, the 8th column under the command of Che Guevara recaptured the city of Santa Clara and destroyed the garrison of government troops.

On January 1, 1959, the rebels managed to infiltrate the capital of Cuba - Havana. Che Guevara received citizenship there, was proclaimed a commandant and entered the ranks of the country's leadership. Despite all this, he continued a simple life without luxury.

Che Guevara sincerely believed that he could create an ideal communist society, but all his hopes were dashed. The bureaucratic apparatus began to grow strongly, bribery appeared.

The commander decides on the Latin American revolution. For this, he left friends, government office, renounced military rank and citizenship in Cuba. On November 7, 1966, Guevara began to keep a diary, where for 11 months he described all the events that took place and his thoughts about them.

The expedition to Bolivia was the last for Che Guevara. In 1967, together with his detachment, he was captured. The day after he was taken prisoner, he and two comrades were shot.

This is how the great reformer, revolutionary and politician Che Guevara lived. He became a truly legendary personality that people still remember. We hope that now you know who Che Guevara is.

In the modern world, there are few figures that can compete with Ernesto Che Guevara in worldwide popularity. It has become a symbol of the Revolution, a symbol of the fight against any lie and injustice. And here is the paradox - Che Guevara, who was an example of selflessness and selflessness, now brings huge incomes to dealers who make money on his image. Souvenirs with portraits of the Comandante, T-shirts, baseball caps, bags, restaurants named after him. Che is fashionable and stylish, and even pop music figures consider it their duty to beat his rebellious image.

Iron character

The real, live Ernesto Che Guevara would certainly have treated this with his inherent irony. During his lifetime, he did not care about ranks, regalia and popularity - his main task was to help the disadvantaged and powerless.

Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario, in the family of an architect with Irish roots Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna la Llosa, which had Spanish roots.

Little Tete had four brothers and sisters, and his parents did everything to raise them into worthy people. Ernesto himself and all his brothers and sisters received higher education.

The father of the future revolutionary sympathized with the left forces, and talked a lot with the Spanish Republicans living in Argentina, who left their homeland after the defeat in the civil war with the Francoists. Ernesto heard the conversations of the Spanish emigrants with his father, and his future political views began to take shape even then.

Not everyone knows, but the fiery revolutionary Che Guevara all his life suffered from a serious chronic ailment - bronchial asthma, which is why he always had to have an inhaler with him.

But Ernesto had a strong character since childhood - despite his illness, he played football, rugby, equestrian sports and other sports. And Che Guevara loved to read in his youth, fortunately, his parents had an extensive library. Ernesto began with adventures, then reading became more and more serious - the classics of world literature, the works of philosophers and politicians, including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Kropotkin, Bakunin.

Che Guevara was very fond of chess, and it was thanks to them that he became interested in Cuba - when Ernesto was 11 years old, when the ex-world champion Cuban came to Argentina Jose Raul Capablanca.

Ernesto Che Guevara fishing. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Student traveler

In his youth, Ernesto Guevara did not think about a career as a revolutionary, although he firmly knew that he wanted to help people. In 1946 he entered the medical faculty of the National University of Buenos Aires.

Ernesto not only studied, but also traveled, seeking to learn more about the world. In 1950, he traveled to Trinidad and British Guiana as a sailor on an oil tanker.

Ernesto Guevara's views were greatly influenced by two trips to Latin America in 1952 and 1954. Poverty and complete powerlessness of the common people against the background of the wealth of the elite - that's what caught the eye of the young doctor. Latin America bore the unofficial title of the "backyard of the United States," where the country's intelligence services helped establish military dictatorships that protected the interests of large American corporations.

During the second trip, a young doctor (graduated in 1953) Ernesto Guevara in Guatemala joins supporters President Jacobo Arbenz, who pursued a policy independent of the United States, nationalizing the lands of the American agricultural company United Fruit Company. However, Arbenz was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the US CIA.

Nevertheless, Guevara's activities in Guatemala were appreciated by both friends and enemies - he was included in the list of "dangerous communists of Guatemala to be liquidated."

The revolution is calling

Ernesto Guevara left for Mexico, where he worked as a doctor at the Institute of Cardiology for two years. In Mexico, he met with Fidel Castro, preparing a revolutionary action in Cuba.

Fidel later admitted that the Argentinean Guevara made a strong impression on him. If Castro himself by that time did not take a clear political position, then Guevara was a convinced Marxist who knew how to defend his views in the most difficult discussion.

Ernesto Guevara joined the Castro group preparing for the landing in Cuba, having finally decided on his future - he preferred the dangers of revolutionary struggle to a calm career as a doctor.

Despite the preparations, the landing of revolutionaries in Cuba in December 1956 turned into a real nightmare. Yacht "Granma" turned out to be a fragile little boat, but the rebels simply did not have the money for something more serious. In addition, it turned out that out of 82 members of the group, only a few people are not susceptible to seasickness. And, finally, at the landing site, the detachment was awaited by the 35,000-strong group of troops of the Cuban dictator Batista, which had tanks, coast guard ships and aviation.

As a result, in the first battles, half of the group died, and more than twenty people were captured. Only a small group, including Ernesto Guevara, broke through to the mountains of the Sierra Maestra, which became a shelter for the revolutionaries.

Nevertheless, it was with this group that the Cuban Revolution began, which ended in victory in January 1959.

In Cuba. Photo: AiF / Pavel Prokopov

Che

Since June 1957, Ernesto Guevara became the commander of one of the formations of the revolutionary army, into which more and more Cubans joined - the fourth column.

The soldiers noted that the commander Guevara always knew how to correctly influence the soldiers in difficult moments, being sometimes cruel in words, but never humiliating his subordinates.

The revolutionary soldiers were amazed - suffering from bouts of illness, Che Guevara marched along with the others, as a doctor assisted the wounded, and shared his last meal with the hungry.

The nickname "Che" Ernesto Guevara was given in Cuba for the habit of using this word in speech. According to one version, Guevara used “che” in conversation as an analogue of the Russian “hear”. According to the other, the address "che" in Argentine slang meant "friend" - this is how the commander Guevara addressed the sentries during his rounds of posts.

One way or another, Ernesto Guevara went down in history as the commandant of Che Guevara.

Continuation of the struggle

After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara became President of the National Bank of Cuba, and then Minister of Industry of the Island of Liberty. The idea that Che Guevara was illiterate and played the role of "wedding general" in these positions is deeply mistaken - smart and educated Che showed himself to be a competent professional who thoroughly delved into the intricacies of the task entrusted to him.

The problem was rather in internal feelings - if Castro and his associates, having achieved victory in Cuba, saw the task in the state building of their homeland, then the Argentinean Che Guevara sought to continue the revolutionary struggle in other parts of the globe.

In April 1965, Che Guevara, by that time a well-known and popular Cuban politician all over the world, left all his posts, wrote a farewell letter, and left for Africa, where he became involved in the revolutionary struggle in the Congo. However, due to disagreements with local revolutionaries and an unfavorable situation, he soon went to Bolivia, where in 1966, at the head of a detachment, he began a guerrilla struggle against the local pro-American regime.

Fearless Che did not take into account two things - unlike Cuba, the local population in Bolivia at that time did not support the revolutionaries. In addition, the Bolivian authorities, frightened by the appearance of Che Guevara in their area, requested assistance from the United States.

A real hunt began on Che. Special detachments of almost all of the then dictatorial regimes of Latin America were sent to Bolivia. The CIA special agents were actively searching for the place of shelter of the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (under this name the detachment of Che Guevara operated).

The death of the commandant

In August-September 1967, the partisans suffered serious losses. Che, however, under these conditions remained himself - despite the attacks of asthma, he encouraged his comrades and provided medical assistance to them and to the captured soldiers of the Bolivian army, whom he later freed.

In early October, the informant Shiro Bustosa gave the government troops a parking place for Che Guevara's detachment. On October 8, 1967, special forces surrounded and attacked the camp in the Yuro gorge. In a bloody battle, Che was wounded, his rifle was broken by a bullet, but the commandos managed to capture him only when the pistol ran out of cartridges.

The wounded Che Guevara was taken to the building of the village school 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.

On the night of October 8-9, Che Guevara was kept in the school building, and the authorities feverishly decided what to do with the revolutionary. It is still unclear where the execution order came from - it was officially signed head of the military government Rene Ortunho, however, he himself insisted all his life that in fact he did not make such a decision. The Bolivian authorities were in talks with the US CIA headquarters in Langley, and it is possible that the command to shoot was given by the top leadership of the United States.

The soldiers chose the direct executor among themselves with the help of a straw, which he pulled out Sergeant Mario Teran.

When Teran entered the room where Che Guevara was, he already knew about his fate. Calmly standing in front of the executioner, Che Guevara briefly threw Teran, whose hands, according to eyewitnesses, were shaking:

Shoot, you coward, you will kill the man!

A shot rang out, ending the life of the revolutionary.

Forever alive

Che Guevara's hands were amputated as material evidence of his murder. The body was put on public display for residents and the press in the village of Vallegrand.

And then something happened that the executioners obviously did not expect. Bolivian peasants, who were so wary of Che, looking at the body of a 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 leftist movement in Bolivia has received a tangible boost. Bolivia's National Liberation Army continued its struggle after Che's death until 1978, when its members switched to political activities in a legal position. The struggle started by Che will continue, and in 2005 he will win the elections in Bolivia leader of the "Movement to Socialism" party Evo Morales.

The body of Che Guevara was secretly buried, and only in 1997, the participant in the execution of the revolutionary, General Mario Vargas Salinas, said that the remains were under the runway of the airfield in Vallegrand.

In October 1997, the remains of Che and his comrades were transported to Cuba and solemnly buried in the mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where Che's detachment won one of the largest victories during the Cuban Revolution.

Defeated in battle, Che defeated death, becoming the eternal symbol of the Revolution. In the most difficult days, the Comandante himself did not doubt the victory of his cause: ““ My defeat will not mean that it was impossible to win. Many were defeated trying to reach the summit of Everest, and in the end Everest was defeated. "

Ernesto Che Guevara or simply Che is one of the most famous revolutionaries of the 20th century, who has become a symbol of the struggle for freedom for many people.

Some facts of his biography remain classified to this day, however, what is known for sure about him is enough to appreciate the brightness and originality of Che Guevara's Commander.

How to become a Comandante

Ernesto Guevara was born in 1928 in Argentina. His parents tried to give him a comprehensive education, and their library consisted of several thousand books.

Ernesto spoke French fluently, was fond of the works of Hugo, Tolstoy, Kropotkin, Sartre. Despite his penchant for the exact sciences, Ernesto chose the profession of a doctor and entered the Faculty of Medicine.

During his studies and after her, Guevara traveled a lot. On one of these trips, he even wrote the book "Diary of a Motorcyclist", where he described in detail his seven-month trip to Latin America.

However, the revolutionary movement carried away Ernesto only on the next journey, which a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires undertook in 1953.

Once in Guatemala, Che Guevara met Cubans who fled from the political regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

By the way, Ernesto Guevara took the nickname Che himself, trying to emphasize his Argentine origin (che is a popular address in Argentina).

Ernesto Guevara was forced to flee Guatemala to Mexico, where he initially sold books and worked as a watchman, and then got a job as a doctor in a Mexico City hospital.

It was to him that two Cubans came for a consultation, one of whom turned out to be an old acquaintance of Ernesto. They said that a group of rebels is gathering in Mexico City, wanting to overthrow Batista.

Fascinated by this idea, Che Guevara met Raul Castro a few days later and became an active participant in the preparation of the Cuban revolution.

Long live the revolution

A year later, a small yacht, on which there were 82 people, departed from the port of Tuspan - the detachment of Fidel Castro. Ernesto Guevara was enrolled in this detachment as a doctor.

The landing in Cuba did not go as planned, and the revolutionaries were forced to wade ashore, saving weapons and medicines.

The expedition was by no means a secret, and a group of emaciated people was attacked by Batista's 35,000-strong army, supported by tanks, warships and fighters. Nevertheless, almost half of the detachment managed to hide in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

These mountains were the base of Castro's detachment for almost two years: from there they conducted sorties, new rebels came there, the local population actively supported the revolutionaries.

It would seem that the revolution, initially doomed to defeat, ended in a spectacular victory after two years of struggle: on January 2, 1959, the partisans occupied Havana without firing a single shot.

After the victory

Under the new government, Che showed himself to be a fairly successful diplomatic and political figure, but already in 1965 he renounced Cuban citizenship and went to the Congo, where he took an active part in the insurgency against the current government.

However, the uprising ended in failure, and the commandant secretly went to Bolivia. There, for 11 months, he successfully waged a guerrilla war against the regular government troops, which were supported by the CIA, which announced a hunt for the legendary revolutionary.

Luck changed Che on October 8, 1967, when the remnants of his detachment were defeated, and he himself was captured. The very next day, an order was received to "destroy Senor Guevara", which was immediately executed.

Che Guevara's body was found in a mass grave in Bolivia only in 1997. Now his remains, along with the ashes of six of his comrades, rest in the mausoleum of Santa Clara, where Ernesto won one of the most important battles for Cuba.

Despite the fact that only one revolution ended with success, in which Ernesto Che Guevara took part, he remained in the memory of people a symbol of the tireless struggle for freedom and equality, a rude, cruel and fanatical, but at the same time an amazingly noble man, completely and completely devoted to the revolutionary ideals.