Che Guevara #1: All over Latin America

Che Guevara. His image is the “countercultural symbol of rebellion” world-over:

That’s all I knew about him, until I read the Hourly History book on him. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in 1928 to a privileged Argentine family. As a pre-medical student, he went on his motorcycle for a 5,000 mile ride across South America. He was deeply impacted by a leper colony in Peru. Outcasts from society, they had forged a colony away from everyone else:

“It was no longer the sickness of the individual body he sought to cure; his main interest was curing the sickness of society.”

 

In 1954, Che was drawn like a magnet to Guatemala when their elected president started redistributing land from the rich to the poor. Corporations whose lands were seized complained to the US, whose ears perked up at signs of communist leanings. They backed a military coup to overthrow the president. Che’s view of the US was now of a “domineering, imperialist power, seeking to destroy Latin America’s democracy”. After the coup, Che became a wanted man in Guatemala; he fled to Mexico, where he met Fidel Castro. They got on like a house on fire.

 

Che joined Castro’s group and received military training. The revolutionaries landed in Cuba in 1956, a tiny group of just 82 people! They got spotted almost immediately; and had to scatter. When they rejoined, there were only 17 of them. A local guerrilla group joined hands with them. Batista’s army came looking; and Castro was whisked to safety while Che continued the war. And miraculously, won. Castro had become the new ruler of Cuba.

 

Castro had declared earlier that he wasn’t seeking a communist regime, but when he started seizing and redistributing land to the poor, the US got worried. As US action looked imminent, Che went to Moscow and got old tanks and jet fighters shipped to Cuba. The US armed, trained and sent Cubans in America to attack Castro, but the attempt was a disaster. Their failed attempt pushed Cuba even closer into Soviet embrace. Soviet nuclear missiles were planned for Cuba; as a deterrent against American attack. This set off the famous Cuban missile crisis.

 

That crisis ended with the Soviets withdrawing their missiles from Cuba. Che felt betrayed by the Soviets. He became more favourable towards China. He also concluded that the only way for communism to succeed in Cuba was if Latin America and the entire world had more communist states…