Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
(192-1967)
This is Che Guevara on a bicycle. OK, it has a small engine, but it’s still a bike that you have to pedal. Che rode
this through Argentina in the late 40s. I was thinking about Che because I’m reading Companero: The Life and
Death of Che Guevara . Several years ago, I read Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life and The Motorcycle
Diaries . I recommend them both.
As you know, I’m a union organizer. In my office, I have a big Che poster mounted on the wall. It’s the one thing
you can see as you pass my office. A few people have commented that it’s a shocking thing to see. That may be
true. It’s there because it has one of my favorite quotations from Che (or anyone else, for that matter) printed on
it:
“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of
love.” — Che Guevara
In sections:
• Che
• Obituary
Argentine physician and revolutionary guerrilla, Cuban official, diplomat and national hero
"And if there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution
in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara." -Phil Ochs
On October 9, 1967, 40 years ago today, Che Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia by his CIA-
assisted and -directed captors.
He told the frightened soldier who was sent to execute him in the small room where Che lay,
seriously wounded: “I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a
man." The Bolivian had been told not to shoot Che in the head, because they wanted to be sure to
get identifiable photos of him dead. After he was killed, and photos taken, Che's hands were
chopped off and sent to Cuba as further proof that the world-famous revolutionary was dead.
Che and his comrades were buried in secret graves, which were only
found in 1997 by an international team of forensic anthropologists. Their remains were returned
to Cuba and buried in a mausoleum in Santa Clara, the city in central Cuba which Che liberated in
the 1959 revolution.
Today in Bolivia, 40 years later, Che's life is being celebrated not just by the indigenous
campesinos he worked with but by the Government and the country's President Evo Morales, the
first indigenous President of Bolivia.
One of the CIA-paid Cuban exiles who were with the military group that hunted Che down was
Felix Rodriquez, a Cuban counterrevolutionary who
was later implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, during which he
helped the CIA train and infiltrate terrorists into Nicaragua.
Rodriquez lives freely in Miami, pardoned by the first President Bush
of his many terrorist crimes (including those in the US). He still has
Che's wristwatch, which he proudly displays to reporters.
Meanwhile, two years ago that frightened Bolivian sergeant who was sent
to shoot Che, now an old man, was going blind from cataracts. He can
now see again, thanks to the free surgery he received, from Cuban
doctors, part of the Venezuelan-Cuban program to provide free
ophthalmic care called "Operation Miracle."
--------------------------------*---------------------------------
The rebels made their base in the mountains of Sierra Maestra, attacking
garrisons and recruiting peasants to the revolutionary army. In the
areas controlled by the guerrillas, Guevara started land reform and
socialist organizing and education. In spite of his chronic asthma,
Guevara enjoyed the hard conditions and war.
Land reform became the slogan, the "banner and primary spearhead of our
movement," as Guevara described it in an interview, that eventually won
the peasants over to participate in the armed struggle. Guevara was
respected by his men, although considered violent -- he shot Eutimio
Guerra who had cooperated with dictator Fulgencio Batista's army.
In the mountains Guevara met Aleida March in 1958, a 24-year-old
revolutionary fighter, and she became Guevara's second wife in 1959. He
continued to write his diary and also composed articles for El Cubano
Libre. A selection of Gurvara's articles, which he wrote between 1959
and 1964, was published in 1963 [sic] as PASAJES DE LA GUERRA
REVOLUCIONARIA. For the world media, Cuba was a hot subject - The New
York Times, Paris Match and Latin American papers sent reporters to the
mountains to write stories of the revolutionaries. At the same time
Guevara was in the mountains, his uncle was serving as Argentina's
Ambassador to Cuba.
Guevara rose to the rank of major and led one of the forces that
invaded central Cuba in late 1958, liberating the city of Santa Clara.
After the Revolutionary victory in January 1959 Guevara gained fame as
a leading figure in Castro's government. He attracted much attention
with his speeches against imperialism and US policy in the Third World.
He argued strongly for centralized planning, and emphasized creation of
the 'new socialist man.' In his famous article, 'Notes on Man and
Socialism,' he argued that "to build communism, you must build new men
as well as the new economic base." The basis of revolutionary struggle
is "the happiness of people," the goal of socialism is the creation
of more complete and more devoped human beings.
The most famous picture of Guevara was taken by Alberto Diaz Gutiérrez,
known professionally as Korda, at a memorial rally held for more than
100 Cubans killed when the French ship La Coubre exploded as it was
being unloaded in Havana Harbor -- it is generally agreed as the result
of counterrevolutionary sabotage against the ship, which carried
munitions as part of its cargo. Korda declined to demand royalty
payments when the picture became a worldwide icon. But when a British
advertising agency appropriated the image for a vodka ad, Korda was
incensed and went to court to stop this commercial use of his famous
photo. "[Che] never drank himself," said the photographer, "and drink
should not be associated with his immortal memory."
From 1961 to 1965 Guevara was minister for industries, and director of
the national bank, signing the bank notes simply 'Che.' He traveled
widely, representing Cuba at the Organization of American States and
speaking at the United Nations, as well as making extended trips to
the USSR, India and Africa, meeting the leading figures of the world,
among others Jawaharel Nehru and Nikita Khruschev. Guevara was also the
architect of the close relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Although good a relationship with Moscow became the cornerstone of
Castro's foreign policy, Guevara followed with interest the development
of the Maoist model in China. In 1965 Guevara made public his
disappointments in Algieria and described the Kremlin as "an accomplice
of imperialism."
Guevara's departure from the Cuban government followed his return from
Algiers. To test his revolutionary theories he resigned from his
official government posts. He had published the highly influential
manuals "Guerrilla Warfare" (1960) and "Guerrilla Warfare: A
Method" (1963), which were based on his own experiences and partly on
chairman Mao Zedong's writings. President John F. Kennedy had
"Guerrilla Warfare" rapidly translated for him by the CIA. Guevara
stated that revolution in Latin America must come through insurgent
forces developed in rural areas with peasant support. There is no need
for the right preconditions for revolution, he wrote; guerrilla warfare
can begin the activities. In his last article, "Vietnam and World
Struggle," Guevara outlined his global perspective for revolutionary
struggle, and stressed the dual role of hate and love.
During his disappearance from public life Guevara spent some time in
Africa organizing the Lumumba Battalion which took part in the Congo
civil war. He was not happy with the way Laurent Kabila fought against
Joseph Mobutu, although his first impression of Kabila was positive.
"Africa has a long way to go before it reaches real revolutionary
maturity," Guevara concluded in his diary.
Che was actually shot with the connivance of the CIA's the mercenary
Cuban counterrevolutionaries who were deployed with the
US-trained Bolivian military. One of these, Felix Rodriguez, later
living in Miami, bragged for years afterward that he had taken Che's
wristwatch and would eagerly display it to any reporter who seemed
interested.
Selected works:
NY Transfer News
http://www.blythe.org
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Granma International
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/
Quotes:
BrainyQuote.com
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/phil_ochs.html
Thinkexist.com
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/top/nationality/argentinian/
***
Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles
-May 2nd, 1930: Before the age of 2, Che suffers his first asthma
attack.
-July 7th, 1953: another trip throughout South and Central America
accompanied by Carlos "Calica" Ferrer.
-July 1955: He meets Fidel Castro and decides to join the struggle
against the Batista dictatorship.
-November 25th, 1956: Travels on board the Granma yacht with another 81
men headed by Fidel Castro.
-December 2nd, 1956: Landed in Cuba and began the rebel struggle.
-December 28th, 1958: The Ciro Redondo Column 8, under the leadership
of Che arrived in the city of Santa Clara from the Sierra Maestra
Mountains.
-December 29-31, 1958: Che leads the Battle of Santa Clara which was
a hardest blow against Batista.
-June 9th, 1959: He marries Aleida March, member of the July 26th
Movement in Santa Clara.
-March 5th, 1967: First combat with the Bolivian army in Lagunillas.
-June 12th, 1997: Che's remains and rest of his comrades in arms are
identified in Valle Grande.
***
"Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!"
“It's a sad thing not to have friends, but it is even sadder not to
have enemies.”
“Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry
has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take
up our arms.”
"We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it,
to his home, to his centers of entertainment: a total war. It is
necessary to prevent him from having a moment of peace, a quiet moment
outside his barracks or even inside; we must attack him wherever he may
be, make him feel like a cornered beast wherever he may move. Then his
moral fiber shall begin to decline, but we shall notice how the signs
of decadence begin to disappear.” -Message to the Tricontinental, 1967