The death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in a small clash in South-east Bolivia is somewhat ironic. A man hailed as the master guerrilla strategist of the Cuban revolution has met his death at the hands of the ill considered troops of a Bolivian dictatorship.
In his 1960 guerrilla manual, Guevara wrote: "Given suitable operating terrain, land hunger, enemy injustices, etc., a hard core of thirty to fifty men is, in my opinion, enough to initiate armed revolutions in any Latin- American country."
Born in 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, Guevara opted early for a life of adventure and took up sport in an effort to overcome his enduring asthma. His father - who told me In July in Buenos Aires that he had no idea of his son's whereabouts - found that they were both independently involved in anti-Peron conspiracies in the early 1950s. By then Guevara had already qualified as a doctor and had travelled through Chile and Peru and had been thrown out of Colombia and Venezuela for his political activism.
Sought refuge
Forced to flee from Argentina by Peron's secret police, Guevara was compromised in a revolt in La Paz, Bolivia, and moved to Guatemala, which was then being governed by the Popular Front President, Arbenz Guzman. He took refuge in the Argentine Embassy when the CIA-sponsored coup by Castillo Armas overthrew Arbenz and the experience undoubtedly ripened his anti-Americanism. In Mexico City he was introduced to Fidel Castro through Castro's brother, Raul.
On December 2, 1956, Guevara landed with Castro's expedition on the shores of Batista's Cuba and the happiest period of his life commenced. Starting simply as the party's doctor, he gradually became its ideologist, tactician, and Castro's indispensable lieutenant.
He was the strategist of the battle of Santa Clara, which precipitated Batista's flight, and was put in charge of the fortress of Havana after its capture. Later he was named Chief of Education in the Revolutionary Army and in November, 1959, he became President of the National Bank and subsequently Minister of Industry.
Among his books are "Guerrilla Warfare" (1960), accepted as a classic, and " Passages of Revolutionary War" (1963) which contains his personal impressions of the Sierra Maestra. In his writing he concentrated on the moral requirements of a revolutionary and hoped that Cuba would see the dawn of a "new man" such as was dreamt of in 1917.
Rumours of disagreements with Castro grew. After months of mystery Castro announced that Guevara, who was known to have a garibaldian yearning to liberate the entire Latin American land mass, had resigned Cuban citizenship and left for "a new field of battle in the struggle against imperialism".
Like an elusive Pimpernel Guevara was thereafter reported anywhere from the Congo to Santo Domingo via Vietnam.
His presence with the Bolivian guerrillas was affirmed by Regis Debray and first denied then affirmed by the Bolivian Government. He had written his own epitaph: " Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons."
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