Che Guevara

Dr. Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928{{ref|bdate}} – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or el Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. Guevara was a member of Fidel Castro's "26th of July Movement" that seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the hope of fomenting revolutions in other countries, first in the Congo-Kinshasa (currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and later in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA-organized military operation. It is believed by some that the CIA wished to keep Guevara alive for interrogation, but after his capture in the Yuro ravine, he died at the hands of the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9 1967. Testimony by various individuals who were participants in, or witnesses to, events during his final hours indicates that the Bolivian government summarily executed him in order to avoid a public trial and the complications that might arise if he were incarcerated on Bolivian soil. After his death, Guevara became a hero of Third World communist revolutionary movements, as a theorist and tactician of asymmetric warfare. He also became a popular icon for revolution and left-wing political ideals in western culture and throughout much of the world.

Guatemala

Following his graduation from the University of Buenos Aires medical school in 1953, Guevara went on to Guatemala, where President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed a left-populist government that, through various reforms, particularly land reform, was attempting to bring about a social revolution. Around this time, Guevara also acquired his famous nickname, "Che", due to his Argentine roots. Che (pronounced {{IPA|/tʃe/}}) is a Spanish interjection used commonly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, some parts of Bolivia, Costa Rica and in the Portuguese of the south of Brazil. It is an exclamation, often used to get attention or express surprise, and so it corresponds in some ways to exclamations such as "hey!", "eh!" and "wow!".

Related Topics:
University of Buenos Aires - 1953 - Guatemala - Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán - Left - Populist - Government - Land reform - Social revolution - Che - Pronounced - Portuguese

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It is also used in a vocative sense as though it meant "friend", and thus corresponds in some ways to expressions such as "mate", "pal", "man", "dude" that can be found in the speech of various English speakers. In English, the misspelling "Ché" (with an acute accent) and the mispronunciation {{IPA|/ʃeɪ/}} are fairly common, probably due to French linguistic influence.

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The overthrow of the Arbenz government by a 1954 CIA-backed coup d'état cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an oppressive imperialist power that would consistently oppose governments attempting to address the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing third world countries. This helped strengthen his conviction that Marxist socialism was the only true way to remedy such problems. Following the coup, Guevara volunteered to fight, but Arbenz told his foreign supporters to leave the country, and Guevara briefly took refuge in the Argentine consulate before moving on to Mexico.

Related Topics:
1954 - CIA-backed coup d'état - Imperialist - Socialism - Consulate

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