40th anniversary of Che Guevara's death

A Christ-like image of Che Guevara adorns this memorial at La Higuera, Bolivia, where he was killed

For whatever reasons, 40 years after his death, Ernesto "Che" Guevara remains a well-known image and a symbol of non-conformity and rebellion even for many young people born long after his death and who know next to nothing about Communism. (And probably don't even know Che was a Communist.)

I've included quite a few links to articles below. If you're really into Che nostalgia, or you're curious as to what Che nostalgia might sound like, you may want to start with this song by Carlos Puebla, or just click here:


"El Che" became perhaps the ultimate romantic image of the guerrilla. There are many ways to romanticize war, and Guevara's image represents one of them. He is probably more significant and certainly better known as a symbol than as an historical figure, though he was important in the real history of Cuba and Latin America in the more concrete sense, as well.

One illustration of that is the way in which Evo Morales, the current democratically elected president of Bolivia, the country in which Guevara was killed (executed, assassinated), commemorates that event (Guevaristas apuntan al capitalismo La Razón 09.10.2007):

Al recordar los 40 años del asesinato del guerrillero argentino Ernesto Che Guevara, el presidente Evo Morales se declaró "guevarista" y convocó a los países de América Latina a una lucha pacífica hasta derrotar al imperialismo, en un acto lleno de simbolismos en La Higuera.

"La lucha heroica del Che y de muchos revolucionarios cubanos, argentinos, latinoamericanos, seguirá hasta cambiar modelos económicos. Hasta acabar con el capitalismo salvaje, inhumano", sentenció, ante un millar de personas que se reunieron en el lugar donde hace cuatro décadas el Che fuera asesinado por el suboficial Mario Terán.

Su discurso antiimperialista fue secundado por los otros oradores, entre ellos Leonardo Tamayo Núñez, alias Urbano, sobreviviente de la guerrilla, y por el millar de personas que ayer se congregaron en el lugar.

No obstante su condición de capitán general de las Fuerzas Armadas, Morales no asistió a los actos que esta institución realizó en reconocimiento a los ex combatientes contra la guerrilla.

"Estoy segurísimo que habrá algunos comentarios de repudio, resistencia de mi presencia, pero no tengo por qué ocultar, somos guevaristas, humanistas, revolucionarios", sentenció.

[To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Argentine guerrilla fighter Ernest Che Guevara, President Evo Morales declared himself a "Guevarist" and called on the countries of Latin America to wage a peaceful struggle to defeat imperialism, in an act full of symbolism at La Higuera.

Che's heroic strugge and that of many Cuban, Argentine and Latin American revolutionaries will continue until economic models have changed. Until we are rid of wild, inhuman capitalism," he declared before a thousand people who assembled in the place where four decades ago Che was assassinated by the junior official Mario Terán.

His anti-imperialist discourse was seconded by other speakers, among them Leonardo Tamayo Núñez, alias Urbano, a survivor of the guerrilla [Guevara], and by the thousand people who gathered yesterday in that spot.

In spite of his position as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Morales did not assist in the actions that institution took in recognition of the former combatants againt the guerrilla.

"I am very sure that their will be some commentaries against me, and resistance to my presence, but I don't have to hide, we're Guevarists, humanists, revolutionaries," he declared.

Guevara, born in Argentina in 1928, earned a medical degree in 1953 from the University of Buenos Aires. The following year, he joined up with a group of Fidel Castro's revolutionaries in exile in Mexico. He went to Cuba and fought with them there. When Castro took power, Guevara became one of the most prominent leaders of the revoloutionary government, serving as Miniter of Industry from 1961-65. He and Raúl Castro are credited with convincing Fidel to align his government more closely with the Soviet Union.

Those marketing to baby boomers find Che's image can come in handy

Guevara's departure from Cuba to be an intenerant revolutionary leader, a kind of Johnny Appleseed of guerrilla warfare, has never been entirely clarified. Guevara spent some time in Africa, in the Congon, unsuccessfully attempting to organize a revolutionary movement there. Then in 1966-7, he took his talents to Bolivia, where he fought until being captured by the Bolivian army 40 years ago today. He was shot to death after capture with no formalities of trial.

Although Cuba then and since celebrated El Che's role as a revolutionary missionary, there has always been the consideration that he may have left Cuba out of some political dissatisfaction with the course of the Cuban revolution. There was arguably a difference in Guevara's theory of revolution with that favored by Castro and the Cuban revolutionary "establishment".

Guevara was famous for his call for "two, three, many Vietnams", reflecting his hope and strategy that revolutions in various parts of what then was commonly called the Third World would destroy the power of American imperialism. While Guevara understood "imperialism" in a Marxist-Leninist sense, it's well for Americans to recall that in Latin America, imperialism of the gunboat diplomacy variety has been very much more associated with their historical relationship to the United States than most of us find it convenient to recognize.

Guevara's approach to organizing revolution in the underdeveloped world was known as the foco (or locofoco) theory. He believed that conditions in much of Latin America were such that if a band of guerrillas (the "foco") would begin an armed struggle in the rural areas against an oppressive government, that the inspiration and appeal of the armed struggle would rapidly attract followers and a much large movement would grow up around it. This approach was notable among other things for assuming in large part that the local Communist parties would have to be bypassed in building the initial armed movement.

Iconic 1960 photograph of Guevara by Alberto Korda

There is an argument to be made that there was a separate "Castroist" emphasis, which viewed the armed struggle in such situations as a part of a larger strategic whole, of which building the broader political organization simultaneously was a crucial part. This assumed a more important part for the existing Communist parties structures.

It's worth noting in this context that despite the gnashing of teeth on the part of Cold War and anti-Castro partisans in the the United States, the Cuban government did not indiscriminately promote revolution (or attempt to "export revolution" in the conventional Cold War term) in all of Latin America. It focused its efforts in that regard on countries that did not recognize the Cuban revolutionary government. Mexico, for example, always maintained decent relations with Cuba. And Cuba in turn refrained from anything more than general rhetorical solidarity with Mexican revolutionaries.

While it could be argued that the "foco" approach enjoyed some success in the 1970s in Nicaragua and El Salvador, for the most part the approach failed. Of course, the playing field wasn't static. In the early 1960s, the growing rivalry between the Soviet Union and China involved the two powers competing to show that they were the more devout chamption of national liberation in the Third World, including in support of guerrilla movements of a leftist nature. The shock of the Cuban revolution and the broader effort to counter Communist-backed national-liberation movements and insurgencies led the United States and other countries to develop counter-measures of various kinds to combat such movements.

While the Iraq War in particular today is a reminder of how non-viable colonial-type wars are in today's world, it certainly is not the case that all or most guerrilla movements succeed. On the contrary, most of them die out or (more commonly) or defeated. Crushed is probably the better term. Having large numbers of hated foreign troops that were seen by much of the population as a hostile colonial presence was a major factor in Vietnam and now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guevara's revolutionary movements in the Congo and Bolivia did not have that particular factor as a stimulus or inspiration for the population to support the guerrillas.

Why then is Guevara still seen as some kind of symbol of political liberation today, even in Bolivia? Part of the reason is surely that his image fits well with a model of the flamboyant revolutionary in the mold of Emiliano Zapato or Pancho Villa that is a more popular symbol in Latin America than in the United States. Another is that the United States is resented in Latin America more than most Americans would like to recognize, and with more real-world justification than most of us would like to admit. And Guevara successfully positioned himself as an opponent feared by the United States, though his actual revolutionary mission work didn't come close to producing his "two, three, many Vietnams".

Che, looking more than a little like Lenin here, attempting to organize revolution in the Congo

Guevara also had a sense for idealistic rhetoric. He seemed to actually believe in the concept of the Hombre Nuevo, the New Man. (His admirers would likely insist that he included women in that goal, though to what degree that's so, I don't know.) The Hombre Nuevo would be upright and honest and devoted to revolutionary solidarity with los pobres de la tierra (the poor of the world).

While I'm not fond of cynical conservative platitudes about the immutability of "human nature", because much of what goes by that name is very much a product of social dynamics, I'm also not thrilled with notion that a more just world requires anything so drastic as New Man, or a New Human Being, in more gender-neutral terms. A social order that provides increased opportunities for those who have too few and which successfully restrains the more destructive aspects of "human nature" doesn't require a new phase of biological evolution or the rewiring of the human brain. Adapting the software to achieve better results would do the job. And that is hard enough in itself.

Not surprisingly, Guevara's adopted country Cuba is commemorating the anniversary:

Reflexiones del Presidente Fidel Castro: El Che Granma International 10/08/07 (English version)

Destacan ejemplo del Che en proceso cubano Granma International 10/08/07

Preside Raúl Castro acto homenaje al Che Guevara Granma International 10/08/07 (English version)

Cuba rinde homenaje al ‘Che’ Guevara La Opinión 08.10.2007

There are a lot of articles on Guevera right now:

Aniversario del Che de Jorge Casteñeda El País 09.10.2007 ("Jorge Castañeda fue secretario de Relaciones Exteriores de México y es profesor de Estudios Latinoamericanos en la Universidad de Nueva York.Publicó La vida en rojo: una biografía del Che Guevara, en 1997.")

El Che histórico, místico y comercial conviven en Bolivia El País 08.10.2007

El símbolo que también sirve al comercio La Razón (Bolívia) 08.10.2007. That article contains links to 19 others in the same paper.

Qué bueno que viniste de Ricardo Catalapiedra El País 07.10.2007

"El Che no es un icono pegado a la pared" (interview with Che's daughter Aleida Guevara) de Jaume Bauzà 08.06.2007

US Government documents on Che Guevara's death from the National Security Archive

Che Guevara in Bolivia by Major Donald R. Selvage, USMC 04/01/1985

CheGuevara.com.ar (Argentina) has links to various articles in Spanish

Fundación Che Guevara, Bolivia (Spanish)

Audio from Cadena SER (Spain):
'La Ventana': En torno a la figura del 'Che' Guevara accessed 09.10.2007

"Hasta siempre comandante", de Carlos Puebla (song)

This is a picture gallery from the Süddeutsche Zeitung: Revolutionär mit Kultstatus: Che Guevara

Tags: che guevara, small wars