Che Guevara - Hasta la Victoria Siempre

Che Guevara

C H E  G U E V A R A (1928–1967)   Ernesto 'Che' Guevara      Born Argentina ... Basque and Irish descent. Referring to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels". Declassified CIA report: "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino." Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist ... Radicalised by the poverty, hunger, and disease in South America. Saw capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States. CIA-assisted overthrow of Guatemala's social reforms President Árbenz solidified Guevara's political ideology. Collaborated with Fidel Castro with aim of overthrowing US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime. 1967 Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA ... operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. About 30 minutes before Guevara was executed, Félix Rodríguez attempted to question him about the whereabouts of other guerrilla fighters who were currently at large, but Guevara continued to remain silent. Rodríguez, assisted by a few Bolivian soldiers, helped Guevara to his feet and took him outside the hut to parade him before other Bolivian soldiers where he posed with Guevara for a photo opportunity where one soldier took a photograph of Rodríguez and other soldiers standing alongside Guevara.  Guevara was asked by one of the Bolivian soldiers guarding him if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No," he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution." Guevara was shot nine times ... five times in his legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat.  [Did not want a clean kill because wanted appearance of death in battle.] ... Guevara's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby ... where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab ... witnesses were called to confirm his identity ... After a military doctor amputated his hands ... hands were preserved in formaldehyde to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. (His fingerprints were on file with the Argentine police.) They were later sent to Cuba. Cuba ... Ministry of the Interior building where Guevara once worked, is a 5-story steel outline of his face. Under the image is Guevara's motto, the Spanish phrase: "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (English: Until Victory, Forever). ... Fidel Castro ... addressed a crowd of one million mourners: "If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che!  If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che's spirit!  If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!" [Source - Wikipedia- here.]

Over the years, Che Guevara was just a cool-looking t-shirt to me.

'He was a revolutionary' was enough for me.  

The detail wasn't important enough for me to remember -- it was all vague and foreign.

Today, focusing on the detail of the man's life, I'm really moved.

Not a lot moves me emotionally.  But this did.

He wasn't an economist.  He saw inequity.  He wasn't a cosseted politician.  He was an Independence Fighter.  He wasn't a theorist.  He was a Realist.  

He put his life on the line, despite the odds.

He was instrumental in training men who thwarted a $13.1 million US-sponsored CIA invasion of Cuba (see also Cuban oil refineries US-controlled corporations:  Shell, Esso and Standard Oil).

He could have chosen an easy path in life, but he died in pursuit of higher aims for his people.

Che Guevara was Dr. Ernesto Guevara, Independence Fighter; not some wayward stirrer.

History has proved that Che Guevara did not live, or die, in vain.

C O U R A G E

C H E  G U E V A R A

(1928–1967)