On Oct. 8, 1967 - it was reported that Che Guevara had been fatally wounded in battle, fighting with peasant revolutionaries trying to take control of Bolivia. Shortly thereafter… it was reported he was executed by U.S. trained Bolivian soldiers in a one-room schoolhouse near Vallegrande, Bolivia on Oct. 9, 1967. Rumors swirled and the body was never delivered…. though they did supposedly cut off Che’s hands… to get a bona fide fingerprint ID.
Many years later in July 1997, Che Guevara’s body was found in in a mass grave near Vallegrande and reburied in Santa Clara, Cuba. In an odd twist of fate…. Vallegrande has become a leading merchant of Che Guevara posters, t-shirts, etc. etc…. so it looks like the capitalists had more staying power than the communists. When I was in college, my roommate had a poster of Che that graced our walls. As I got older, and learned more about the Castro regime in Cuba that brutally oppressed the good people - Che became less of a hero… and started to look more like a terrorist. To this day, Che Guevara remains a hero to many on the “left” side of politics. I think they should talk to some folks who lived in Cuba at the time… as they will hear a different story. Che Guevara is still a hero to some folks but his legend as a glamourous revolutionary has faded with time. As is often the case, the guy who claims he wants to be protect the people is often the guy who realy wants to weild power over the people and force his beliefs on them. If given the choice - I think I would prefer McDonald’s french fries and an ice cold coke over communist tyranny. Che’s life reminds me of John Steinbeck’s line - The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry. And in case you didn’t know - Steinbeck got this line from a Robert Burns poem - To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough - which contained the phrase - The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley. Another line comes to mind that sums up Che Guevara’s legacy -”One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.” Make sure you check out news clip for October 8th - This Day in History, which features an item on Che’s death. Ironies abound with today’s political tensions (see Che address the United Nations - HA!). - or as Mark Twain used to say - History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
