Che Guevara Memorial Day…
On October 9, 1967, Latin American revolutionary, communist, commander of the Cuban Revolution Ernesto Che Guevara was killed in Bolivia.
Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia the day earlier, on October 8, 1967. His squad of 17 men was tracked down and surrounded by units of « Ranger » led and trained to fight the rebel movement by CIA specialists.
Guevara and several associates distracted himself, was wounded and captured, but helped the other 11 fighters of his unit to leave.
… On the wall of a village school stands a picture captured the day before Che Guevar, surrounded by Bolivian rangers. He had just over two hours to live and this is the last photograph of Che Guevara alive. But neither he, Major de Guzman, nor the soldiers know that yet. Only a man in the uniform without signs of difference, standing to the left of Che knows. A few minutes ago, upon hearing the sound of a landing helicopter, he decided which of the two orders he would obey.
For de Gusman and the soldiers, this man is Captain Felix Ramos, an intelligence officer of the 8th Division. This morning he flew into La Iguerra with Commander of the 8th Division, Col. Joaquín Centeno Anaïa. The colonel went with other officers to an operation to retrieve the remains of Che’s guerrillas, so Ramos turned out to be not just the senior but the only officer in the village, when a soldier came after him around 10 a.m. – calls from the division headquarters in Vallegrande and demand the senior officer’s phone number.
Felix picked up the phone: « Captain Ramos is on the phone » – « Ramos, you are authorized by the Supreme Command to conduct Operation 500 and 600 » – « Can you repeat the message? » – « You are authorized to conduct Operation 500 and 600. » The conversation was over, Ramos knew exactly what these numbers meant: 500 – Che Guevara, 600 – dead.
But the staff officer did not know to whom he had just handed President Barrientes’ order to. Only a few dozens of people in the country knew this. Under the name « Felix Ramos » hid CIA employee Felix Rodriguez, who actually investigated Che. And the CIA officer Rodriguez had a completely different order from his American boss – to bring Che alive to a base in the Panama Canal area at any cost.
As if two identities were not enough for one person, Rodriguez had a third – an anti-Castrian Cuban emigrant, and not from the list of those who lost all the « masters of life », but from the number of intelligentsia who completely criticized Batista, but who strongly disliked what happened afterwards. He was a veteran of the 2506 Brigade and the fight against communism became the meaning of his life.
For the next hour, in the soul of Felix Rodriguez and these hypostasis fought. He could have called journalists he knew, put Che on a helicopter that was fully at his disposal and brought him to Vallegrande, where he would be met by a crowd of journalists – after which the Bolivians would no longer be able to declare that Che « died from his wounds. » This is how Debra’s life was saved a few months earlier. But eventually, upon hearing the sound of a landing helicopter, Felix made a different decision. The conciouness of conciouness is the winner.
The morning of the next day after the captivity of the day, Che Guevar was executed. His very last words were :
“Shoot me, coward!” U only kill a man! »
This photograph was taken at about 11 o’clock in the morning on October 9, 1967, in the deaf Bolivian village of La Iguera by Major of the Bolivian Air Force Jaime Nino de Guzman.
« I will always dream and I will not stop until I am stopped by a bullet » (Che Guevara).
Che considered himself a soldier of the world revolution, in the necessity of which he always sincerely believed. Guevara passionately wished happiness to the peoples of Latin America and strived for the triumph of social justice in his native continent.
In his last letter, he wrote to his children: « Your father was a man who lived according to his convictions and always acted according to his conscience and views. »
