CHE GUEVARA

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 females arrived in Cuba in an try 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. In an work to find out knowledge about the rebels people were pulled in for questioning. Plenty of 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 thinking about 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. 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.

General Fulgencio Batista responded to this by sending more troops to the Sierra Maestra. He now had ten,000 men hunting for Castro and his 300-strong army. Although outnumbered, Castro's guerrillas could inflict defeat after defeat on the government's troops. In the summertime of 1958 over a thousand of Batista's soldiers were killed or wounded and plenty of 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 guerrilla .

The United States supplied Batista with planes, ships and tanks, but the advantage of using the latest know-how 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 together 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 run away the country. Senior Generals left behind tried to set up another military government. Castro's reaction was to demand a general strike. The workers came out on strike & the military were forced to accept the people's desire for modify. Castro marched in to Havana on January 9,1959, & 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 & his ministers was confiscated; the phone company was nationalized & the rates were reduced by 50 per cent; land was redistributed amongst the peasants (including the land owned by the Castro relatives); separate facilities for blacks & whites (swimming pools, beaches, hotels, cemeteries etc.) were abolished.

 In 1960 Guevara visited China & the Soviet Union. On his return they wrote books Guerrilla Warfare & Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. In these books they argued that it was feasible to export Cuba's revolution to other South American countries. Guevara served as Minister for Industries (1961-65) but in April 1965 they resigned & become a guerrilla leader in Bolivia.

 In 1967 David Morales recruited Flix Rodr­guez to train and head a team that would try to catch Che Guevara. Guevara was trying to persuade the tin-miners living in poverty to join his revolutionary army. When Guevara was captured, it was Rodriguez who interrogated him before they ordered his execution in October, 1967. Rodriguez still possesses Guevaras Rolex watch that they took as a trophy.