*Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born
in Rosario in Argentine in 1928.
After studying medicine at the
University of Buenos Aires he
worked as a doctor. While in
Guatemala in 1954 he witnessed
the socialist government of
President Jacobo Arbenz
overthrown by an American
backed military coup. Disgusted
by what he saw, Guevara decided
to join the Cuban revolutionary,
Fidel Castro, in Mexico.
In 1956 Guevara, Castro and
eighty other men and women
arrived in Cuba in an attempt to
overthrow the government of
General Fulgencio Batista. This
group became known as the July
26 Movement. The plan was to
set up their base in the Sierra
Maestra mountains. On the way
to the mountains they were
attacked by government troops.
By the time they reached the
Sierra Maestra there were only
sixteen men left with twelve
weapons between them. For the
next few months Castro's
guerrilla army raided isolated
army garrisons and were
gradually able to build-up their
stock of weapons.
When the guerrillas took control
of territory they redistributed the
land amongst the peasants. In
return, the peasants helped the
guerrillas against Batista's
soldiers. In some cases the
peasants also joined Castro's
army, as did students from the
cities and occasionally Catholic
priests.
In an effort to find out
information about the rebels
people were pulled in for
questioning. Many innocent
people were tortured. Suspects,
including children, were publicly
executed and then left hanging
in the streets for several days as
a warning to others who were
considering joining the
revolutionaries. The behaviour of
Batista's forces increased
support for the guerrillas. In
1958 forty-five organizations
signed an open letter supporting
the July 26 Movement. National
bodies representing lawyers,
architects, dentists, accountants
and social workers were
amongst those who signed.
Castro, who had originally relied
on the support of the poor, was
now gaining the backing of the
influential middle classes.
General Fulgencio Batista
responded to this by sending
more troops to the Sierra
Maestra. He now had 10,000 men
hunting for Castro and his 300-
strong army. Although
outnumbered, Castro's guerrillas
were able to inflict defeat after
defeat on the government's
troops. In the summer of 1958
over a thousand of Batista's
soldiers were killed or wounded
and many more were captured.
Unlike Batista's soldiers, Castro's
troops had developed a
reputation for behaving well
towards prisoners. This
encouraged Batista's troops to
surrender to Castro when things
went badly in battle. Complete
military units began to join the
guerrillas.
The United States supplied
Batista with planes, ships and
tanks, but the advantage of using
the latest technology such as
napalm failed to win them victory
against the guerrillas. In March
1958, President Dwight
Eisenhower, disillusioned with
Batista's performance, suggested
he held elections. This he did, but
the people showed their
dissatisfaction with his
government by refusing to vote.
Over 75 per cent of the voters in
the capital Havana boycotted the
polls. In some areas, such as
Santiago, it was as high as 98
per cent.
Fidel Castro was now confident
he could beat Batista in a head-
on battle. Leaving the Sierra
Maestra mountains, Castro's
troops began to march on the
main towns. After consultations
with the United States
government, Batista decided to
flee the country. Senior Generals
left behind attempted to set up
another military government.
Castro's reaction was to call for a
general strike. The workers came
out on strike and the military
were forced to accept the
people's desire for change.
Castro marched into Havana on
January 9,1959, and became
Cuba's new leader.
In its first hundred days in office
Castro's government passed
several new laws. Rents were cut
by up to 50 per cent for low
wage earners; property owned
by Fulgencio Batista and his
ministers was confiscated; the
telephone company was
nationalized and the rates were
reduced by 50 per cent; land was
redistributed amongst the
peasants (including the land
owned by the Castro family);
separate facilities for blacks and
whites (swimming pools,
beaches, hotels, cemeteries etc.)
were abolished.
In 1960 Guevara visited China
and the Soviet Union. On his
return he wrote two books
Guerrilla Warfare and
Reminiscences of the Cuban
Revolutionary War . In these
books he argued that it was
possible to export Cuba's
revolution to other South
American countries. Guevara
served as Minister for Industries
(1961-65) but in April 1965 he
resigned and become a guerrilla
leader in Bolivia.
In 1967 David Morales recruited
Félix Rodríguez to train and head
a team that would attempt to
catch Che Guevara. Guevara was
attempting to persuade the tin-
miners living in poverty to join
his revolutionary army. When
Guevara was captured, it was
Rodriguez who interrogated him
before he ordered his execution
in October, 1967. Rodriguez still
possesses Guevara’s Rolex watch
that he took as a trophy.
In their book, Ultimate Sacrifice,
published in 2006, Larmar
Waldron and Thom Hartmann
argued that in 1963 Guevara was
involved in a plot with Juan
Almeida Bosch to overthrow Fidel
Castro.
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