Wednesday 10 October 2007

ERNESTO GUEVARA DE LASERNA aka EL CHE 1928-1967


Ernesto Guevara 14 June 1928-9 October 1967



Ernesto Guevara was Argentine -born, Marxist revolutionary, political figure, leader of cuban and international guerrillas, hero and turned to be a fashion icon.



As a young man he studied medicine, and travelled all over South America bringing him into direct contact with impoverished conditions in which many people lived. His experiences and obs ervation through these trips led him to the conclusion that region's socio-economic innequalities cuold only be remedied by socialism through revolution, prompting him to intensify his study of marxism and travelled to Guatemala to learn the implemented reform there by the President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.
In 1956 he joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July movement which saw the end of dictator Fulgencio Batista's regime of Cuba in 1959, after a succesful revolution ha was appointed as"supreme prosecuter"overseeing the trials and executions of hundreds of suspects of war criminals in previous regime. After serving in various important posts in the new government,Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with intention of fomenting revolution in various sub saharan African nations first in Congo-Kinshasa,Algeria,Mozambique and Tanzania, he met the likes of Patrice Lumumba,Ahmed Ben Bella,Samaora Machel and Julius Nyerere, In 1967 Guevara left Dar es salaam for Bolivia he went to serve revolution there,where he was captured in a military operation supported by the CIA and U.S army special forces, Guevara was executed by Bolivian army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9 1967




The body of Che Guevara assessed by Bolivian Army personnel



After his death Guevara became an icon of socialist revolution movements and a cultural icon worldwide. The Alberto Korda's photo has received wide distribution and modification, appearing on t-shirt protest banners and in many other formats, The Maryland Institute College of Art called Alberto Korda's picture the most famous photo in the world and a symbol of 20th century

On the 9th of October 2007 people worldwide marked 40 years since his death, In London it was in Old Street and Walthamstow.

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