Che Guevara Biography and Works.

Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born in Rosario in Argentina in 1928. He worked as a doctor after studying medicine at the University of Boende Aires.

While in Guatemala in 1954, he witnessed the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by an American-backed military coup. He was disgusted with what he saw and decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.

In 1956, Guevara, along with 80 other men and women arrived in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of General Fulgencio Batista. This came to be known as the July 26 Movement’. Only sixteen men were left with twelve weapons by the time they reached the Sierra Maestra. Castro’s guerrilla army raided the isolated army garrisons for the next few months and were gradually able to build up their stock of weapons.

The guerrillas redistributed the land amongst the peasants when they took control of the territory. The peasants helped the guerrillas against Batista’s soldiers in return of the act. He was captured by Bolivian Forces in Vilegrande (Bolivia) and executed in 1967.

Trivia

In ‘Ultimate Sacrifice, which was published in 2006, Larmar Waldron and Thom Hartmann argued that Guevara was involved in a plot to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1963.

Quote

“Many will call me an adventurer and that I am, only one of a different sort one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.”