Che Guevara

Che is a highly romanticized figure and his reputation is greater than his accomplishments. He was a bright and educated man who was an ardent believer in communism. An Argentinean by birth, he traveled widely in South and Latin America before he joined Fidel Castro and the revolution in Cuba.

He was largely a figurehead in Castro's forces, Castro didn't trust anyone but his brother, Raul, and he wasn't about to give real authority to Che who lacked any military training or experience. Che was too impulsive and not detail oriented, fine traits in a revolutionary orator but not in a military commander. Castro did put Che in charge of eradicating dissentients and perceived enemies of the revolution. Che was quite zealous in this and he was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, many whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After the revolution, Castro chose Che to be a traveling diplomat, perhaps as much to get a charismatic potential rival out of the country as to further Cuba's diplomatic agenda. This backfired on Castro when Che became recognized as the face of the Cuban revolution and eclipsed Castro as the foremost Latin revolutionary in the eyes of the world. He also embarrassed Castro by launching vocal attacks on South Africa and the USA as racist states, when he was a member of an entirely white government which ruled the 98% black nation of Cuba.

Castro re-assigned Che from the very visible position as Cuba's ambassador to the world to a covert agent for spreading international revolution. Che was first sent to the Congo with a small Cuban force where a Communist insurgency was raging. This was the first time that Che commanded armed forces. The problems of an inexperienced commander were magnified by the communications difficulties of integrating the Spanish speaking Cubans with the French speaking locals. Che had little grasp of the strategy or tactics and, despite having a smaller force equipped only with light arms and a desperate supply situation, Che chose to mount frontal attacks on government positions and troop concentrations. Revolutionary rhetoric and an unbounded lust for power isn't any match for air superiority and artillery. While Che was willing to throw away the lives of his troops, he wasn't willing to risk his own skin, he stayed safely in the rear then quietly snuck back to Cuba.

Che second try at leadership was in Bolivia. He infiltrated the country with a Czechoslovakian brigade with the intention of rallying the locals to the communist cause and striking government forces in rural areas. The force was supposed to live off the land and get military supplies from Cuba. This immediately ran into problems because the radios to communicate with Cuba didn't work and Che hadn't bothered to make a Plan B. Che didn't make any real plans and had no supply lines, instead of attacking government targets, they robbed banks and stole from farms. What was supposed to be a revolution quickly devolved into a gang of bandits. Che was running from the Bolivian police, not fighting the Bolivian army. Whatever local support Che's band started with evaporated and every Bolivian became their enemy. It was apparent to the soldiers that they were expected to die in Bolivia for no purpose, military discipline broke down, their numbers dwindled due to casualties and desertions, disease was rampant. Eventually, Che was rounded up, the Bolivian police wanted to turn him over to the CIA but when the CIA indicated they didn't want him, they executed him.

How did Che help his people? Assuming by "his people" you mean the Cubans rather than the Argentineans. Che did play a role in the overthrow of a corrupt Batista regime. Che was a war criminal responsible for murdering thousands of defenseless Cubans, Che undoubtedly believed this was necessary to secure a communist state and perhaps he killed a few people that were legitimately "enemies of the state" but mainly it was terrorism against the people he claimed to serve with the goal of cementing Castro's rule rather than the egalitarian society that he claimed to support.

ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA NACIÓ EN ROSARIO ARGENTINA EN 1928,ESTUDIO MEDICINA SU MILITANCIA IZQUIERDISTA LO LLEVO A PARTICIPAR EN LA OPOSICIÓN CONTRA PERON desde 1953 viajó por Perú, Ecuador, Venezuela y Guatemala, descubriendo la miseria dominante entre las masas de Hispano américa y la omnipresencia del imperialismo norteamericano en la región, y participando en múltiples movimientos contestatarios, experiencias que le inclinaron definitivamente a la ideología marxista.

En 1955 Ernesto Che Guevara conoció en México a Fidel Castro y a su hermano Raúl, que preparaban una expedición revolucionaria a Cuba. Guevara trabó amistad con los Castro, se unió al grupo como médico y desembarcó con ellos en Cuba en 1956. Instalada la guerrilla en Sierra Maestra, Guevara se convirtió en lugarteniente de Castro y mandó una de las dos columnas que salieron de las montañas orientales hacia el oeste para conquistar la isla. Participó en la decisiva batalla por la toma de Santa Clara (1958) y finalmente entró en La Habana en 1959, poniendo fin a la dictadura de Fulgencio Batista.

El triunfo de la revolución, llevada a cabo con escasos medios, se vio facilitado por la insostenible situación del país en aquellos años. Pese a registrar la más alta renta per cápita de América Latina, la riqueza se concentraba en pocas manos; este fortísimo desequilibrio social se repetía en los marcados contrastes entre el campo y la ciudad. En el plano político, la corrupción, los mecanismos clientelares y la inoperancia se habían acentuado hasta límites insospechados bajo el régimen despótico y autoritario de Fulgencio Batista; su gobierno logró hacer coincidir en su contra a los sectores más dispares de opinión e intereses. La economía cubana, en extremo condicionada por la presencia de Estados Unidos, se basaba en el turismo en las áreas urbanas y en una agricultura de carácter capitalista que había generado un numeroso proletariado rural, determinante en el proceso revolucionario.