|
8 October 1967. Día del Guerrillero Heroico
Aleida 2013.11.05. 10:53
On 8th October 1967 the remaining seventeen guerrillas, tortured by diseases and hunger, were trapped in a brushy gully called Quebrada del Churo by the Bolivian forces and their only chance of escape was a breakout.
A local peasant alerted the Bolivian army, led by Gary Prado Salmon, who quickly detected the guerrillas.
The battle began at 1 p.m. Some guerrillas were killed, others were captured - including Che, dressed into dirty rags, almost barefoot, with unkempt hair and beard. He was seriously wounded on his left leg in the skirmish, and his M-2 carbine was destroyed by an enemy bullet. Willy (his real name was Simón Cuba), who was fighting by his side, was also captured.
Only five of the guerrillas could escape - Rodolfo Saldaña, a member of the urban network in Bolivia, helped them to reach Chile.
Che's Bolivian diaries, one for the year of 1966 and one for the year of 1967, were taken away from him - they were analysed in great detail by the Bolivian army and their CIA minders.
The US rangers, the CIA agent and the Bolivian military involved in his capture took great interest in his twelve rolls of film, his twenty maps with corrections in crayons of different colours, and a portable radio that didn't work.
Che and the other captives were taken to La Higuera, the nearest village in the area. Che was left bound lying on the floor of a mud hut that was used as a school, with the dead body of two of his guerrillas (Arturo and Olo), while Willy was kept on the neighbouring room.
The Bolivians were waiting for an order about what should be done to Che Guevara.
Later the Bolivian soldiers and the CIA agent Felix Rodriguez (a Cuban exile who arrived at La Higuera on 9th October early morning) claimed that Che had been talking to them, expressing disappointment of his own failure and that he had even sent a message to his wife, giving his permission for her to remarry.
Well, Aleida March never mentioned such a message and it is difficult to believe that someone like Che Guevara, who rarely expressed his feelings, even to his own beloved ones, would have chatted with his capturers.
This is the last photo of Che - with Felix Rodriguez on his side - that was taken a little while before his execution. (9th of October 1967)
|
AJÁNLOM AZ OLDALT
Friss hozzászólások
Archívum