Ernesto Che Guevara Biography
Che Guevara |
(1928–1967)
Che Guevara was a Marxist
revolutionary allied with Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution.
Who Was Che Guevara?
Ernesto "Che"
Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary who was a prominent
figure during the Cuban Revolution. Guevara studied medicine before traveling
around South America, observing the conditions that spurred his Marxist
beliefs. He aided Fidel Castro in overturning the Batista
government during the late 1950s, and then held key political offices during
Castro's regime. Guevara later engaged in guerrilla action elsewhere, including
in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed in 1967.
Early Life
Guevara was born into a
middle-class family on June 14, 1928, in Rosario, Argentina. He was plagued by
asthma in his youth but still managed to distinguish himself as an athlete. He
absorbed the left-leaning political views of his family and friends, and by his
teens had become politically active, joining a group that opposed the
government of Juan Domingo Perón.
After graduating from high
school with honours, Guevara studied medicine at the University of Buenos
Aires, but in 1951, he left the school to travel around South America with a
friend. The poor living conditions he witnessed on their nine-month journey had
a profound effect on Guevara, and he returned to medical school the following
year, intent on providing care for the needy. He received his degree in 1953.
The Cuban Revolution
However, as Guevara's
interest in Marxism grew, he decided to abandon medicine, believing that only
revolution could bring justice to the people of South America.
In 1953, he travelled to Guatemala, where he
witnessed the CIA-backed overthrow of its leftist government, which only served
to deepen his convictions.
By 1955, Guevara was
married and living in Mexico, where he met Cuban revolutionary Fidel
Castro and his brother Raúl, who were planning the overthrow
of Fulgencio Batista's government. When their small armed forces landed in
Cuba on December 2, 1956, Guevara was with them and among the few that survived
the initial assault. Over the next few years, he would serve as a primary
advisor to Castro and lead their growing guerrilla forces in attacks against
the crumbling Batista regime.
In January 1959, Castro
took control of Cuba and placed Guevara in charge of La Cabaña prison, where it
is estimated that hundreds of people were executed on Guevara's extrajudicial
orders. He was later appointed the president of the national bank and minister
of industry and did much to assist in the country's transformation into a
communist state.
In the early 1960s, Guevara
also acted as an ambassador for Cuba, traveling the world to establish
relations with other countries, most notably the Soviet Union, and was a key
player during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also
authored a manual on guerrilla warfare, and in 1964 delivered a speech to the
United Nations in which he condemned U.S. foreign policy and the apartheid in
South Africa.
Death and Legacy
By 1965, with the Cuban
economy in shambles, Guevara left his post to export his revolutionary
ideologies to other parts of the world. He travelled first to the Congo to
train troops in guerrilla warfare in support of a revolution there but left
later that year when it failed.
After returning briefly to
Cuba, in 1966, Guevara departed for Bolivia with a small force of rebels to
incite a revolution there. He was captured by the Bolivian army and killed in
La Higuera on October 9, 1967.
Since his death, Guevara
has become a legendary political figure. His name is often equated with
rebellion, revolution and socialism. Others, however, remember that he could be
ruthless and ordered prisoners executed without trial in Cuba. In any case, Guevara's
life continues to be a subject of great public interest and has been explored
and portrayed in numerous books and films, including The Motorcycle Diaries
(2004), which starred Gael García Bernal as Guevara, and the two-part
biopic Che (2008), in which Benicio Del Toro portrayed the
revolutionary.
With affection,
Ruben
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