Che Guevara

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.