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Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14,
[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an
Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and
guerrilla leader. After his death, his stylized image became an ubiquitous
countercultural symbol worldwide.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout
Latin America and was transformed by the endemic
poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic
inequalities were an intrinsic result of
monopoly capitalism,
neo-colonialism, and
imperialism, with the only remedy being
world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in
Guatemala's social reforms under President
Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual
CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology.
Later, in
Mexico, he met
Fidel Castro and joined his
26th of July Movement. In December 1956, he was among the revolutionaries who invaded Cuba under Castro's leadership with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to Comandante, and played a pivotal role in the successful guerrilla campaign that deposed Batista.
[3] Following the
Cuban revolution, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals.
[4] Later he served as minister of industry and president of the national bank, before traversing the globe as a diplomat to meet an array of world leaders on behalf of Cuban
socialism. He was also a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on the theory and practice of
guerrilla warfare, along with an acclaimed
memoir about his
motorcycle journey across
South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first in an unsuccessful attempt in
Congo-Kinshasa and then in
Bolivia, where he was captured with the help of the
CIA and executed.
Both notorious for his harsh discipline and revered for his unwavering dedication to his revolutionary doctrines, Guevara remains an admired, controversial, and significant historical figure. As a result of his death and romantic visage, along with his invocation to armed
class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by "moral" rather than "material" incentives,
[5] Guevara evolved into a quintessential icon of
leftist-inspired movements as well as a global merchandising sensation. He has been mostly venerated and occasionally reviled in
a multitude of biographies, memoirs, books, essays, documentaries, songs, and films.
Time Magazine named him one of the
100 most influential people of the 20th century,
[6] while an
Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled
Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."
[7] - wikipedia