Che Guevara May 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967 Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna - Nickname "Che" derived from Guevara's habit of punctuating his speech with the interjection che, a common Argentine expression for a friend.

Who is Che Guevara? Che Guevara was a Marxist (communist) revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader.

Early Life As a young medical student, Guevara travelled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's economic inequalities were a result of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

Imperialism - as the forceful use of a nation's authority by territorial conquest establishing economic and political domination of other nations.

Economic inequality - refers to disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income.

Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of people use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc.)

Che Guevara & Fidel Castro In Mexico, Che joined and was promoted to commander in Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement in 1954, playing a vital role in the successful guerrilla campaign to overthrow the U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Although Che planned to be the group's medic, Guevara participated in the military training with the members of the Movement, and, at the end of the course, was called "the best guerrilla of them all". The first step in Castro's revolutionary plan was an assault on Cuba from th 26 of July Movement Mexico. They set out for Cuba on November 25, 1956. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 found each other afterwards. Guevara wrote that it was during this bloody confrontation that he laid down his medical supplies and picked up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, finalizing his symbolic transition from physician to combatant.

Fidel Castro

At this point Castro promoted Guevara to comandante (commander) of a second army column. Guevara was extremely disappointed by what had happened in Cuba and decided to impose even harsher discipline. Deserters were punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send execution squads to hunt down those seeking to escape.

As a result, Guevara became feared for his ruthlessness. During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also responsible for the execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. Guevara created the radio station Radio Rebelde in February 1958, which broadcast news to the Cuban people and statements by the 26th of July movement, and provided radio telephone communication between the growing numbers of rebels.

Cuba

In late July of 1958 Guevara would play a critical role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his army column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. As the war extended, Guevara led a new column of fighters sent westward for the final push towards Havana (capital of Cuba). In the closing days of December 1958, Guevara directed his "suicide squad" in the attack on Santa Clara that became the final military victory of the revolution. Radio Rebelde broadcast the first reports that Guevara's column had taken Santa Clara on New Year’s Eve 1958. This contradicted reports by the heavily controlled national news media, which had at one stage reported Guevara's death during the fighting. Batista, upon learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic the next day on January 1, 1959. On January 8, 1959, Castro's army rolled victoriously into Havana. In February, the revolutionary government proclaimed Guevara "a Cuban citizen by birth" in recognition of his role in the triumph.

Congo In 1965 Guevara decided to venture to West Africa and offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing war in the Congo. Guevara thought that Africa was imperialism's weak link and therefore had enormous revolutionary potential. Guevara's aim was to export the Cuban Revolution by instructing local fighters in Marxist ideology and strategies of guerrilla warfare. In his Congo Diary, he cites the incompetence and infighting of the local Congolese forces as key reasons for the revolt's failure. Later that year, ill and suffering from asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors.

Bolivia Che's desire to lead revolutions elsewhere and Castro's willingness to support such endeavors also influenced events leading to Guevara's illfated escapade in Bolivia. Cuba's ambassador to Bolivia, at Che's request, organized a drive to promote unrest among Bolivia's workers and peasants in 1961. The Bolivian government discovered the plot, expelled the Cubans and arrested 150 leading communists, effectively terminating the potential warfare. A country of great natural wealth, Bolivia has suffered exploitation of its resources since the Spaniards discovered the vast silver deposits during the 16th century.

Che had come to Bolivia in 1966 to start a social revolution. Instead of liberating the rural underclass, however, he was betrayed and, after being wounded in a gun battle, he was captured and held prisoner in a schoolhouse. The next day, 9 October, 1967, he was executed by Bolivian troops and his body taken to a hospital, where his corpse was paraded before the world's media.

Guevara’s Dead Body

Nelson Mandela referred to Che Guevara as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom"

Che Guevara Quotes: “I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.” “If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.” “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” “Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!” “I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.” Che Guevara said this just before he was shot and killed.

Guevara children denounce Che branding by Rory Carroll (June 7 2008)

The scraggly beard, the beret adorned with a star, the intense gaze: it is an instantly recognisable image which has been used to sell everything from booze to T-shirts to mugs to bikinis. Che Guevara is an icon of the 20th century whose brand has turned into a worldwide marketing phenomenon. If you want to shift more products or give your corporate image a bit of edge, the Argentine revolutionary's face and name are there to be used, like commercial gold dust.

don't want money, we demand respect."

The fact that Guevara was a communist guerrilla and Marxist ideologue is an irony of little interest to his capitalist exploiters. It has, however, become a problem for his children.

The complaint came amid a surge of renewed interest in Guevara. The actor Benicio del Toro won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival this month for his portrayal in Steven Soderbergh's four and a half hour epic Che. Camilo Guevara, a son, who participated in the forum, said he welcomed the film as long as it was faithful to his father's memory.

Aleida Guevara this week denounced the commercialisation of her father's image as an affront to his socialist ideals. "Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing." A man who fought and died trying to overthrow capitalism and material excess should not be used to sell British vodka, French fizzy drinks and Swiss mobile phones, among other travesties, she said. "We

Aleida, 47, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, made the comments during an internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of what would have been her father's 80th birthday on June 14.

Last month Buenos Aires unveiled a towering bronze statute of the young doctor who left Argentina on a motorbike in 1953 and became radicalised by oppression and poverty in Latin America. He joined Fidel Castro's guerrilla campaign against Cuba's dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and became a key figure in the revolution

before unsuccessfully attempting to export insurrection to Congo and Bolivia, where he was captured and executed by CIAbacked government troops in 1967. Guevara was a more doctrinaire ideologue than Castro and a fervent critic of "material incentives" but in death he became transformed into an icon of daring and rebellion. The famous image portrait was based on an image taken by the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in Havana in 1960. It was pinned to his studio wall for seven years until the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli mass produced it around the time of Guevara's death. Korda willingly forfeited royalties but he sued a British advertising agency for using the photo to promote vodka. Cuba's government has used the image to promote its revolution and to rake in tourist dollars through staterun stores which sell Che paraphernalia.

Che Guevara

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OPV : Other People’s Views Topic: Communist Revolution in Cuba. People of Cuba

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Che Guevara C H E G U E V A R A Q J I I C

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GUERRILLA HAVANA IMPERIALISM INEQUALITY LATIN AMERICA POVERTY REVOLUTION

Topic: Che Guevara Three Level Questioning Level 1 – True or False

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T/F

Che Guevara was from Cuba. Guevara was a journalist before joining Castro. Guevara saw great poverty in Latin America. Guevara created a radio station. Guevara was ruthless to those he saw as traitors and spies. Guevara was killed in Bolivia.

Level 2 – Question and Answer 1 2 3

Q: What is the reason given for Guevara becoming a communist revolutionary? A: Q: Why was guerrilla warfare used? A: Q: What did Guevara think about his time in the Congo? A: Level 3 – The Big Questions

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Q: Why do you think Guevara and Castro created a radio station? A:

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Q: Do you think that Guevara was a successful revolutionary? Why? Why not? A:

Q: Do you agree with Mandela that Guevara was "an inspiration for every human 3

being who loves freedom"?

A:

4. Q: Do you agree with Guevara when he says “Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel”?

A:

Latin America Find and colour in the countries.

Where is …?

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Guatemala

Mexico

Jamaica

Bahamas

Puerto Rico

Colombia

Venezuela

Panama

El Salvador

Costa Rica

Belize

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Cuba

Latin America