Revolutionary icon Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army on this day in 1967. Despite the US insistence that it wanted him alive, and that the call to kill him came from Bolivia’s military high command, historians like Michael Ratner disagree: “The U.S. wanted Che dead because that was the way to end revolutionary fervour in Latin America and around the world,” he writes – noting also that CIA operative Felix Rodriguez was with the battalion that captured Guevara.
Of course, the opposite happened: the legend of Che has outlived the man by generations – his iconic portrait a rallying standard for those facing oppression.
Che, born in Argentina, wanted to bring about change not only in his own country – and in his second home, Cuba – but wanted the entire Global South to be freed from colonialism. That saw him take up the fight in Congo. He went to the DRC in 1964 to support the Simba rebellion. His involvement was at the request of Congolese rebels seeking assistance against the Western-backed neo-colonial government in Kinshasa. He provided military training and guidance to the rebels, who were fighting against the forces that had executed Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, three years earlier.
After his time in the DRC, Che moved to Tanzania, where he worked with the revolutionary government of Julius Nyerere, providing military training to Tanzanian forces to remove the remnants of the colonial and imperial influence in the region. He invited revolutionary fighters from all over Africa to Tanzania to establish a revolutionary base for the continent’s liberation.
He’s a leader respected, revered and remembered in the hearts and minds of millions of Africans. Che saw the struggle in Africa as an integral part of the worldwide struggle against imperialism. Here is a collection of his most inspiring quotes.
