The curse of Che Guevara: truth and fiction about the last days of the famous revolutionary

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The name of the world famous leader of the Cuban revolution Ernesto Che Guevara fanned by legends. The largest number of them is associated with his last days: for a long time it was believed that he died in battle, but it turned out that in fact he was captured by Bolivian soldiers and shot without trial. In the village of La Higuera, where this happened, he is revered as a saint, and they say that everyone who was involved in the death of the revolutionary is haunted by a curse …

In 1965, all Cubans were surprised by the sudden disappearance of their revolutionary leader Che Guevara. Various assumptions were expressed: sick, arrested, killed, etc. Six months later, his farewell letter was published, which was made public by Fidel Castro himself. It said: "I officially resign from the post of minister, from the rank of major, from Cuban citizenship … Nothing more connects me with Cuba, except for connections of a special kind, from which I can not refuse, as I renounce my posts."

At that time, no one knew about the real reasons for Ernesto's hasty departure from Cuba, but later it became known: he went to Bolivia on the orders of Castro to make a revolution in Latin America. Obviously, he received such a difficult task because of the outbreak of conflicts with Castro and his desire to quickly get rid of a competitor.

Che Guevara did not achieve the desired results, his partisan activity in Bolivia lasted only about a year, after which the soldiers of the Bolivian army captured him. The next day, on the orders of the military government of Bolivia, Che Guevara was shot without prosecution - obviously, they were afraid of his escape from prison and excessive publicity in the event of a trial, because this would attract the attention of the whole world.

During his lifetime, Che did not find support among the Bolivian residents - reforms were carried out in the country, local residents were satisfied with their results and feared an outsider, whom they presented as an invader and aggressor. But after the murder of Che, Guevara became an idol and a deity for them: in the village of La Higuera there are more portraits of Che today than the inhabitants themselves, they pray to him and tell legends about him.

The mythologization of the image of Che was also facilitated by the fact that everyone who was involved in his death later suffered from accidents and strange incidents. Because of this, a legend arose about the curse of the commandant: allegedly he takes revenge on everyone who betrayed him.

Bolivian President Rene Barrientos, who ordered the execution of the revolutionary, died in 1969 in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances; three months later, a peasant was killed, who revealed to the authorities the whereabouts of the partisan detachment; in 1970, the decapitated corpse of officer Lorenzetti, who was in charge of anti-partisan military actions, was found on the highway; Bolivian Ranger Captain Harry Prado, who captured Che, was wounded by an accidental bullet in the spine and remained paralyzed; Colonel Andreas Selich Sean, who beat Ernesto during interrogations, himself died in prison, beaten with sticks, etc.

Everyone who was involved in one way or another in the capture and murder of the commandant was killed or died from sudden illnesses. The executor of the death sentence, Mario Teran, survived, but drank himself and lost his mind. For a long time, the "curse of Che Guevara" did not affect the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Bolivia, Antonio Arguedas, in whose presence Ernesto's hands were cut off in order to present fingerprints as evidence that the murdered man was indeed the same Che Guevara. Later, Arguedas was repeatedly assassinated, but he remained alive. 35 years after Che's death, a homemade bomb exploded in the central square of La Paz in the hands of a 72-year-old man. This man turned out to be Arguedas.

Interest in the legendary life and tragic death of Che Guevara continues unabated today. The Comandante is recognized as one of the 100 most important persons of the twentieth century. Books, films and other works of art are dedicated to him - original photo series: famous historical figures as hipsters