INTRODUCTION
All over
the world, when one hears the term colonialism, what comes to the mind is a
time when European powers established colonies in Africa, the Americas, and
Asia. Some of the renowned European powers of the period between the sixteenth
century and the mid twentieth century included France, Britain, Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, and Russia. It was during this same period that the World War
I and World War II occurred; hence, the term colonialism is associated with histories
of many nations. Even though during the colonial period there were uneven relationships
between the colony and the colonial power, both the indigenous people and the
colonists have a reputation for being historical heroes during their times. One
could argue that the colonists were great heroes due to their persistent focus
on expanding their colonies despite local resistance. Conversely, the
indigenous people, especially their leaders, were heroes due to their determined
opposition against the colonial powers’ ambition of grabbing their land.
Che Guevara
was one of the heroes during his time that opposed colonialism, and fought for
both political and economic freedom in Cuba and other countries. His active role in the Cuba Revolution was fundamental in
ensuring the liberation of Cubans from the then dictatorial president of Cuba,
Fulgencio Batista. Taking place between 1953 and 1959, the Cuba Revolution led
to considerable international and domestic repercussions for Cuba. For
instance, it distorted the relationship between the United States and Cuba;
hence; forcing the US to impose an embargo against Cuba. Moreover, immediately
after the conclusion of the revolution, the government that Fidel Castro formed
commenced political consolidation and nationalization of banks and other
economic resources, which transformed the civil society and economy of Cuba.
However, it is worth noting that the role that Guevara played in the Cuban
revolution contributed ideologies for various revolutionary movements that took
place in many countries. The purpose of this paper is to expatiate on the life
of Guevara through an incisive focus on his ideas, personal life, achievements,
failures, and execution.
PERSONAL LIFE
Guevara was
born on 14 June 1928 in Argentina’s city of Rosario. He was born in a middle
class family that had a great concern for social equality, especially the need
to ensure that poor and disadvantage people get a fair treatment in the society.
Guevara’s parents had five children and Guevara was the eldest child in the
family. Even though he originated from a middle class family, that status did
not deter his willingness and ambitions of fighting for the rights of the poor
and the oppressed. Guevara’s father was a veteran of the Spanish civil war, and
often had several meetings with his fellow veterans from the war in his home. Therefore,
Guevara got a perfect alignment for politics during his boyhood.
Motorcycle Journey
In his years as a medicine student at
the University of Buenos Aires, Guevara developed a hobby for travel with the
aim of exploring the world. He travelled through the whole of Latin America in
twenty days using his motorcycle. When he finally returned to Buenos Aires, he
was a completely different person. His perception of Latin America was that it
was not a combination of different countries, but a solitary entity that needed
a liberation strategy. The hunger, poverty, and diseases that he witnessed
during the travel radicalized him. In every country that he
travelled through, he observed that the government had little concern for
serving its people. Most of these governments were subjecting their citizens to
either oppression or abject poverty, particularly in Latin America. These
experiences made Guevara to leave his career in medicine, and to engage in
revolutionary war through active participation in politics.
Guatemala and the land reform
From his travel of throughout South
America, Guevara concluded that the United States was capitalistically
exploiting Latin America. Consequently, he engaged in the social reforms of
Guatemala in 1953 under the leadership of Jacobo Arbenz who was Guatemala’s
president at that time. In the Guatemala social reform, the newly
democratically elected president aimed at ending the system in which private
companies and individuals owned large tracts of land, leaving many people in Guatemala
homeless. Besides other social reforms, Guevara assisted the president to enact
a land reform that required expropriation and redistribution of all large
tracts of uncultivated land to the landless peasants. After the
success of this reform, Guevara decided to stay in Guatemala with the objective
of perfecting himself and accomplishing all that was necessary for him to be a
real revolutionary.
The success of the social reform in
Guatemala, and the insurrection of the Unit Fruit Company motivated Guevara’s
political ideologies. He decided to continue the guerilla warfare against oppressive
rule in other countries. Later, he also helped in insurrecting governments in
Cuba and Congo before his tragedy in Bolivia. The Cuban revolution played a
significant role in sharpening his hit and run strategies of guerilla war. Helping
Fidel Castro to overthrow the government of Batista in Cuba offered him an
opportunity to attain effective and adequate military training. Obviously, he
would not be in a position to arrange and steer guerilla warfare against
governments that have with military soldiers if he had no prior military
training and survival tactics.
Arrest and Execution
Guevara arrived in Bolivia in 1966 with
the aim of arranging a revolutionary war against Bolivia’s government. He
formed highly trained and equipped guerilla groups that, evidently, would have
thwarted Bolivia’s poorly equipped and scantily trained military. In fact, in
the early months of 1967, his guerilla groups defeated some Bolivian army at a
brief encounter at a mountainous region of Camiri city. Unfortunately, Guevara mission
of insurrecting Bolivia’s government was not successful. The Special Forces of
the US army assisted the Bolivian army in dealing with Guevara’s guerilla
groups. On 7 October 1967, a Cuban exile, who was a CIA operative, located
Guevara’s guerilla camp and informed the Bolivian Special Forces. Consequently,
the Bolivian Special Forces attacked Guevara’s campsite, wounded him, and took
him prisoner. On 9 October 1967, Rene Barrientos, who was the Bolivian President,
ordered the execution of Guevara despite the request of the United States
government to have Guevara interrogated further in Panama. Guevara’s
executioner was Mario Teran, who was a Bolivian army sergeant, and he shot the
iconic cultural hero nine times.
GUEVARA AND THE CUBAN REVOLUTION
After his
motorcycle journey throughout South America, the cases of exploitation and
oppression of the poor and the high levels of poverty deeply troubled Guevara.
Hence, he decided that he would fight for the freedom of these people. In 1955,
he befriended Fidel Castro who was a Cuban revolutionary leader, and the dual
became the leaders behind the success of the Cuban Revolution.
A bloody confrontation
Guevara and Castro trained soldiers
with the aim of overthrowing the government of Batista in Cuba. The troops that
were loyal to Castro formed the 26th of July Movement. On 25 November 1956,
this movement left for Cuba onboard a Granma to fulfill their first assault
mission. However, Batista sent his troops and killed most of them immediately
they landed in Cuba. It was such an unfortunate event for Castro and Guevara
since only twenty-two out of the eighty-two of them survived. The remaining
guerilla soldiers established their base at the top of Sierra Maestra hills. At
the mountains, Castro and Guevara continued training and recruiting their
guerilla troops secretly. Local rebels supported them with food supplies and
other necessary goods.
A strategy for popularity
After a few months, troops of the 26th
of July Movement started raiding camps of Batista’s army and killing the
soldiers mercilessly. These successful raids were crucial to the guerilla
troops as they managed to stock diverse weapons; thus, guaranteeing constant
victories in their subsequent raids. Ultimately, the guerilla troops took
control of all the regions around Sierra Maestra hills. They then redistributed the land among all the local residents equally. This
was a good strategy as they demonstrated to these peasants that they were
fighting for their freedom and for social equality. Consequently, Guevara and
Castro received support from these peasants in fighting the Batista troops.
In just a couple of months,
Guevara’s popularity rose suddenly and several catholic priests, students, and
peasants joined his troop of guerillas. Batista’s government became very
furious at the growing popularity of the guerilla army. Therefore, Batista publicly
executed anybody affiliated with any of the guerilla troops. This act
infuriated most Cubans and increased their support for the revolutionary army.
Hence, several people continued to join the revolution through recruitment in
either Castro’s or Guevara’s group. The revolutionary army mostly consisted of
the oppressed and the poor. However, by the year 1958, the powerful
middle class and national bodies representing social workers, doctors,
accountants, and lawyers backed and supported the guerillas. The guerillas
fought bravely and defeated the government army on several offensives.
The Battle of Las Mercedes
In the 1958 Battle of Las Mercedes,
Guevara played a key role in thwarting the plans of Batista government of
destroying Castro’s army. The Battle of Las Mercedes marked the final war of Operation Verano after the Battle of La
Plata. Operation Verano was a 1958
summer offensive that the Batista government designed with the aim of crushing
Castro’s guerilla army. The Batista government formed the Operation Verano in response to the rising fame of the guerillas as
discussed above. In the Battle of Las Mercedes, Cuban army general wanted to
lure the guerillas, which were under the command of Rene Latour, into a
location that could allow the government army to surround and kill them. After
the column that Latour led reached that location, they ambushed some retreating
soldiers, but were not aware that the Cuban General was coming with another
column of Cuban soldiers behind them. As the battle continued,
Guevara and his troops blocked and ambushed another 1500 Cuban troops that the
Cuban general had anticipated to add to the battle zone. Hence, the Batista
government lost the war again.
As the battle continued, Guevara
gradually became very conversant with the tactics of hit and run assaults;
hence, he could lead the guerilla to attack Batista’s army, and then disappear
into the countryside to escape any counterattack by the Batista army. The war between the two troops continued, and intensified
towards the end of December 1958. Guevara led a group of troops towards the
city of Havana, for the last stand of the revolution wars. During this time, he
was mostly travelling with his columns of soldiers at night to avoid any
unexpected ambush from the Batista army. He managed to command his guerilla
troops into a series of tactical victories, except for Santa Clara city. As it
appears, most of the battles that Guevara’s men fought were very dangerous;
hence, one could describe his guerilla groups as a ‘suicide squad’. In a number
of days when Guevara and his men were preparing for the last battle of
capturing Santa Clara, they, at times, run out of bullets and guns, including complete
overrun and surrounding by Batista’s army. However, he finally managed to
capture Santa Clara. This braver character indicates that Guevara was a
survivor and he never gave up owing to the fact that his guerilla squad was
approximately a tenth of the number of Batista’s soldiers.
The war at Santa Clara was the final battle of the Cuban
Revolution, and it marked victory for Guevara and Castro’s revolutionary army.
This battle took place in December 1958, and it involved a chain of events that
Guevara had tactically organized with the sole purpose of capturing the city of
Santa Clara. After Guevara had declared that the last troops of the Batista
army had surrendered, it took only twelve hours before General Fulgencio
Batista fled Cuba. He took a plane at Havana and headed for the Dominican
Republic. Fidel Castro officially assumed control of Havana and the country on
8 January 1959, with Guevara being the La Cabana Fortress prison commander.
MARXIST IDEOLOGICAL
INFLUENCE
The ideas of Karl Marx, a political
philosopher, played a crucial role in shaping the revolutionary movements of
Guevara. Marx had the ability to interpret historical events and predict what
would most likely occur in politics. Moreover, Marx held that people should not
only interpret and predict events that take place in the world. Rather, they
should do whatever is necessary to shape future events. He believed that people
should design the environment to suit them, but not the environment to
determine how people live. Based on
his analysis of past historical events, Marx predicted a society whose main
defining feature would be class struggle. He explained if capitalists have the
ability to make enormous profits, they would engage in various gluttonous
activities that would eventually incite war. For instance, replacement of
industrial workers with machines like robots would raise the rate of
unemployment leading to poverty. On the other hand, high levels of unemployment
would result into low wages for workers, as workers would be excessive as
compared to labor demand. In the broad picture, Marxist was trying to explain
that as the number of unemployed individuals increase in a society, in addition
to numerous low-income workers, societies would majorly comprise of poverty,
hunger, and diseases. At the end of the day, rebellion and war between the
capitalists and the unemployed class would be inevitable, and could most
probably lead to the creation of a socialist economy.
Marx’s ideas were instrumental to
Guevara’s revolutionary wars. As he travelled from one county to another in the
entire South America, the common cases of poverty, hunger, and diseases that he
witnessed convinced him that the then governments in South America were undoubtedly
fulfilling what Marxist had envisioned. In the view of Guevara, the fact that
governments and a few affluent members of these governments were oppressing the
poor was an indication of a capitalistic theory. Accordingly, he
decided that for him and his supporters to shape human destiny and reduce the
covetousness nature of these governments, war against the governments was the most
effective way. Guevara also understood and maintained that he alone could not
liberate these people from their governments, but needed their support to
achieve that objective. This was the reason for his decision to form alliances
with other Marxist Leninists and revolutionaries like Fidel Castro and Raul
Castro. Moreover, Guevara’s revolutionary wars had a great influence from
Marxists idea that capitalist system would not only oppress the common people,
but would lead to alienation of these people from the goods that they
produced.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Pursued medicine
Guevara joined the University of
Buenos Aires in 1948 with the aim of pursuing his dream course of Medicine. The
fact that he grew up while taking care of his sick grandmother who mysteriously
passed away after sometime, informed his decision to pursue medicine as a career
in his higher education. He hoped to help people prevent or cope
with diseases and other minor social issues. His father’s leftist leaning
influenced and bolstered his affinity for the oppressed, the sick, and the
poor. His later choice of engaging in revolutionary wars also proves his
support for social equality. It is during the course of pursing medicine that
he developed an interest to travel and explore the world. After learning that
most governments in South America, especially Latin America were oppressing
their citizens, he came back to Argentina with the mind of a revolutionary and
a military theorist. However, he continued his studies and attained a medical
degree in 1953. This achievement officially made him Dr. Ernesto Guevara.
Despite his medical degree achievement,
his travel through Latin America and South America totally changed his mind on
his career choice. He wanted to help people in all these countries in fighting
and preventing hunger, diseases, and poverty. Consequently, he decided to
prioritize on politics and revolutionary wars instead medical profession. Additionally,
it is worth noting that his guerilla warfare to insurrect governments could not
offer him a chance to continue practicing medicine, as he mostly had to hide
and recruit guerilla soldiers. In 1954, he worked for just a few months in New
Mexico’s general hospital before his decision to fight for the rights of the
oppressed and the poor in revolutionary wars.
Participated
in various sport activities
By
age twelve, Guevara was already taking parts in local chess tournaments after
learning how to play chess from his father. This made him very popular in his
local neighborhood and set a firm foundation for his political ambitions.
Guevara also participated and excelled in other sport activities like athletics
and rugby. His success in playing rugby at the University of Buenos Aires
earned him the epithet “Fuser”. This nickname was due to his
aggressive and raging style of play. It is also noteworthy that Guevara
participated and excelled in all these sport activities despite suffering from
acute asthma in his early life; a condition that he ultimately fought.
Literary and intellectual
interests
Guevara had a stunning passion for poetry during his adolescence, and
he extended that passion for literary works to the rest of his life. Another
reason to consider that greatly influenced his enthusiasm and eclecticism in
reading is the available of more than three thousand books in his home. Some of
the renowned authors whose literary works he enjoyed included Karl Marx, Emilio
Salgari, and Robert Frost. At his older ages, Guevara had a strong interest in
writers from Latin America. He categorically catalogued the ideas of these
authors into his personal handwritten notebooks of definitions, philosophies,
and concepts of powerful intellectuals. At school, Guevara’s favorite subjects
were philosophy, political science, engineering, mathematics, history, archaeology,
and sociology. Thus, this large volume of information that Guevara exposed
himself to, made him a well read, and an intellectual being.
Accomplished Writer
Travelling gradually become Guevara’s
most-favored hobby as his hunger for exploring the world to understand people’s
problems intensified. The more he visited various nations, the more he learned
of their miseries and problems that prevailing governments indirectly or
directly inflicted on them. Therefore, it is noticeable that travelling
immensely contributed to Guevara’s political career, including formation of
guerilla militants. In addition, during his periods of travel through Latin
America, the rest of South America, and finally in Africa, he experienced
various important events that he continuously recorded. An
example of an event that he recorded is his motorcycle journey across South America.
In the course of this journey, Guevara recorded every challenge and achievement
that he experienced along the way in his diary. His diaries are the basis of
the book Motorcycle Diaries that has
had a large number of sales throughout America. Hence, it is justifiable to
assert that Guevara was an accomplished writer.
Guevara’s role in Fidel Castro’s
government
Fidel Castro and Guevara were great companions during the
Cuban revolution. Therefore, at the end of the revolution, Fidel awarded him
sumptuously with worthy government posts. After Fidel had taken control of
Havana on 8 January 1959, Guevara officially assumed the role of a commander in
the prison of La Cabana Fortress. This was his first position in Fidel Castro’s
government, whereby his responsibility was to organize revolutionary justice against
people that the government perceived as war criminals, informants, or traitors.
His second position in Fidel
Castro’s government was being a minister of industries. In the course of his
term as the minister of industries, Guevara confiscated land that US
corporations owned in Cuba, and redistributed it to the people.
This was a continuation of his support for social equality and equitable
distribution of natural resources. Guevara also served as finance minister as
well as National Bank President. Under these leadership capacities, Guevara
nationalized businesses, banks, and factories with the aim of eliminating
social inequalities. He also engaged the government to provide employment
facilities, healthcare, and housing to Cubans. In 1960, Guevara visited the
Soviet Union and China, and instigated the Cuba-Soviet relations. After a
couple of years, Guevara resigned from his duties in the government, and
continued with his revolutionary work overseas.
Guevara’s marvelous contribution
to education
Apart from the
land reforms that he successfully implemented in Cuba, Guevara emphasized on
the significance of literacy for all people. He engaged on establishing
educational institutes and schools in both urban and rural areas. This was an
effort to enhance the level of literacy in Cuba. He argued that it was
imperative for the government to train teachers and other educators to ensure
that they are competent enough to fulfill their task of transforming illiterate
individuals into literate people. Another role that Guevara played in enhancing
literacy is making higher education accessible globally. During Guevara’s rule,
the rate of literacy in Cuba escalated from sixty percent to ninety six
percent.
GUEVARA’S FAILURES
People have been criticizing Che Guevara, considering him
an enemy of the people for relying on wars to fight for freedom. Seemingly, the
argument here is that even though setting people free from poverty and
government oppression was a good move, the option of guerilla warfare was indisputably
inappropriate. On the other hand, the United States government was supporting
most of the governments even with military personnel. Hence, Guevara was
certain that the only path for freedom was through guerilla warfare. However,
the wars led to death of many people including civilians, governments’ military
personnel, as well as the guerilla soldiers. For instance, the Cuba revolution alone led to the death of approximately five
thousand people. Another instance is the death of the 26th of July Movement
troops when they were trying to climb to the top of Sierra Maestra mountains
before being attacked and killed by government troops. Of all the eighty-two
members of the movement, only twenty-two survived and made it to the top of the
mountain. Moreover, Guevara also died in the course of guerilla warfare in
Bolivia. As a suggestion, Guevara could have involved these governments in peaceful
negotiations before resorting to guerilla warfare.
Secondly, Guevara never seemed to
care about the consequences of his guerilla wars on both the people that he was
fighting for and the national economy. Guevara’s guerilla troops were highly
trained, and had effective military equipment. Hence, most governments had no
option, but to dedicate huge portions of national funds in equipping and
training military soldiers who could successfully engage Guevara’s guerilla
soldiers. Consequently, these governments dedicated minimal funds for economic
growth and developments. Apparently, these governments could go to an extent of
taxing their citizens heavily in a bid to collect sufficient funds for running
the governments. Moreover, Guevara destroyed several properties and justified
his actions by asserting that “the life of a single
human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man
on earth”.
Lastly, Guevara’s failure at
Bolivia was mainly due to the approach that he gave the battle. In the battle
of Santa Clara, Guevara’s guerilla troops defeated the government’s troops
despite the fact that the government’s military soldiers were approximately ten
times the number of Guevara’s guerilla soldiers. However, the battle at Bolivia
never proved that much a success for Guevara. His failure at Bolivia is partly
because he was expecting cooperation and assistance from the local rebels and
the Bolivian Community Party in organizing a revolution against the Bolivian
government. However, neither of these groups supported his
revolutionary plans in Bolivia. Moreover, he never checked the shortwave radio
transmitters that Cuba had given him. He later realized that the radio
transmitter was faulty; hence, he could not contact his Cuban guerilla troops.
Consequently, he could not get back up from the guerilla troops in Cuba; thus,
leaving him and his fifty guerilla soldiers at Bolivia stranded and isolated. At
the end of the day, the Bolivian government troops located his guerilla
campsite, attacked them, and captured him.
CONCLUSION
In summary,
the foregoing discussions demonstrate that Guevara’s rebellious nature and acts
of revolution were decisive in the demise of imperialism and in the adoption of
socialism in Cuba as well as other South American and African countries. His
inexorable work has earned him a countercultural symbol of revolution and
rebellion. In his relatively short life, Guevara managed to serve humanity
under diverse profiles like that of a guerilla leader, an author, a doctor,
military theorist, and a diplomat. At an early life, Guevara witnessed how
poverty, hunger, and diseases afflicted the lives of people. These hardships
and sneering living conditions, that the poor were experiencing, inspired and
propelled him to fight for social equality and human freedom. Furthermore, his
motorcycle journey throughout South America still exposed him to coming close to
the poverty and disdainful conditions of the poor’s lives; hence, his resentment
and anger against the oppressive governments arose.
Guevara
finally joined the Cuban Revolution and worked closely with Fidel Castro in an
effort to insurrect Batista’s government. After the Cuban Revolution, Guevara
supported several progressive plans in Cuba, and ascertained social equality
throughout the country. He instituted land reforms with the aim of
redistributing large tracts of land that US corporations owned to the civilians
who were landless. He also represented Cuba in negotiating for economic
relationships with other countries, for instance, the Soviet Union and China. Moreover,
during his term as a minister of industries in Cuba, Guevara focused on
improving literacy levels in Cuba. His efforts resulted into an implausible
rise in literacy rate from sixty percent to ninety six percent.
On the other hand, Guevara’s
contribution towards ensuring good governance remains a debatable issue.
Several most-influential personalities in the world have extolled him as a
hero. For instance, the late Nelson Mandela described Guevara as a motivation
for anybody who loves freedom. Conversely, other people dismiss his
hero-worshipping and depict him as a merciless executioner who had the guts to
kill anybody who stood between him and his revolutionary objectives. Despite these
varying views about Che Guevara, the fact remains that his rebellious nature
and revolutionary actions have made him to become an iconic cultural idol.
