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Che Guevara (1928-1967)
Real name ERNESTO GUEVARA
Latin American guerrilla leader and revolutionary theorist, who became a hero to the New Left radicals of the 1960's.
Born into a middle class family in Rosario, Argentina, Guevara received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1953.
Before starting work as a doctor, he travelled through various Latin American countries, and what he saw lead him to believe that some kind of social change was necessary to improve the conditions of ordinary people in these countries. His experience of the military coup in Honduras strongly influenced his views, turning him against the United States and towards the Communist Party.
Convinced that revolution was the only remedy for Latin America's social inquities, in 1954 he went to Mexico were he joined exiled Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro.
In the late 1950's, he played an important role in Castro's guerrilla war against cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and when Castro came to power, he served as cuba's minister of industry (1961-1965). A strong opponent of US influence in the Third World, he helped guide the Castro regime on it's leftward and pro-comunist path.
The author of two books on guerrilla warfare, Guevara advocated peasant-bassed revolutiionary movement in the developing countries. He disappeared from Cuba in 1965, reappearing the following year as an insurgent leader in Bolivia.
He was captured by the Bolivian army and shot near Valle Grande on Oct. 9, 1967.
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