Cold Open

It’s the middle of the day on October 9th, 1967, in La Higuera, a tiny village in central Bolivia.

26-year-old Felix Rodriguez smiles as the camera clicks. His youthful, clean-cut looks are a stark contrast to those of the haggard, handcuffed man who’s just been posed for a photograph beside him.

The revolutionary fighter Che Guevara is barely recognizable. His long dark hair hangs lankly around his face, his beard and the green fatigues he wears are filthy.

But with the photoshoot now over, Felix gives Guevara a gentle shove and then marches him toward the dark doorway of the mud-walled village schoolhouse they're in. Like the other soldiers milling around the village, Felix wears a Bolivian Army uniform. But in his case, though, it’s just a cover. Felix is a Cuban-American CIA operative. He’s been hunting Che Guevara for years, and at last he snagged him.

But Felix won’t have him for long. The Bolivian Army Rangers who captured Guevara have been given orders to execute him immediately. Felix thinks this is a mistake and has been stalling for time, but he doesn’t have the authority to override the decision - unless he hears from the Pentagon in the next few minutes.

So once Guevara is made prisoner once again in the dark schoolhouse, Felix takes out his radio.

He checks that there isn’t any problem with his equipment. But everything is working normally - which means there’s no word from his superiors.

Felix turns as the village schoolmistress peeks out from behind a wall. Timidly, she asks whether Guevara is going to be shot - because she’s just heard on a Bolivian state radio news broadcast that he's already dead. Felix just sighs, knowing he’s out of time.

Waiting by the schoolhouse is a Bolivian sergeant holding a rifle. His eyes are a little glassy as if he’s been drinking. This is the man who’s volunteered to be Che Guevara’s executioner. So, Felix reminds him not to shoot Guevara in the head. It has to look like he died in battle. Then Felix turns and walks away up the hill… as the sergeant heads into the schoolhouse. Felix hasn’t gone far when… there’s the unmistakable sound of gunfire. The building where children usually meet to learn has just become a death chamber.

After his success in helping to overthrow the US-backed government in Cuba, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara hoped to do the same in Bolivia. He met stiffer resistance than he had anticipated, though, and after nearly a year of guerilla warfare in the Bolivian jungle, Guevara was captured by US-trained Bolivian Special Forces. Fearful he would escape, the Bolivian government then decided to execute Guevara. But in death, Che Guevara will become more than just a man. His myth, and status as a revolutionary icon, will soon take on a life of its own, one that will continue long after Guevara himself was killed on October 9th, 1967.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 9th, 1967: The Execution Of Che Guevara.

Act One: The Battle of Santa Clara

It’s December 28th, 1958, just outside Santa Clara on the island of Cuba, nine years before Che Guevara is executed.

Pressing himself into the dirt, 30-year-old Guevara examines the city from a nearby hill, assessing its defenses through a pair of binoculars.

When he first landed in Cuba with his friend Fidel Castro and 82 other rebel troops, Guevara was just an idealistic but naïve young doctor. In the two years since, though, Guevara has fought numerous battles against the forces of Cuba’s authoritarian president Fulgencio Batista. Guevara is now a seasoned and courageous fighter, with a growing reputation as a stern and occasionally brutal leader. And as the revolution has spread, more and more Cubans have joined the fight against the island’s repressive government, and now Guevara commands a small army of over 300 soldiers. Their objective is to take the city of Santa Clara - the only major obstacle left between rebel troops and Cuba’s capital, Havana.

But Guevara’s men are severely outnumbered.

Observing Santa Clara’s rooftops and fortifications with his binoculars, Guevara can see that the city is heavily defended. There are at least 3500 enemy soldiers in Santa Clara equipped with tanks and aircraft - the kind of high-tech military equipment the revolutionary forces lack.

After getting the lay of the land, Guevara stations his troops in a university just north of the city. Batista’s regime is deeply unpopular, especially among the younger generations in Cuba, so the students at the university welcome Guevara and his rebels with open arms. Figuring he might be able to win over more civilians in the region, Guevara decides to take a calculated risk. Foregoing the element of surprise, he visits a local radio station and sends a broadcast into the city. With stirring words, Guevara urges the civilians of Santa Clara to rise up when they see his soldiers entering the city. And hearing this message, Batista’s air force launches a massive attack on the countryside. Planes strafe the hills at random, hoping to catch the guerrillas in their hiding places. But none of the air strikes are unsuccessful.

Having survived this attack, that night, under the cover of darkness, Guevara orders his troops to move out. He divides his forces into two. Half of them attack Santa Clara itself, while the others target the railroad out of the city. There’s an armored train parked in Santa Clara loaded with thousands of pounds of ammunition, weapons, and communications equipment. Guevara doesn’t want the government troops withdrawing to Havana with those valuable supplies, so he orders his men to pull up sections of the track.

Meanwhile, inside the city, his other soldiers advance slowly through the streets. But Guevara's radio broadcast seems to have worked - the guerrillas are welcomed by the populous. Locals supply them with food and improvised weapons like Molotov Cocktails. They barricade the streets to obstruct government troops while allowing Guevara’s men to punch holes through the walls of their homes to move through the city undetected.

And a day into the fighting, the tide of battle turns decisively in Guevara's favor. His men succeed in routing a major section of Batista’s troops. But fleeing under heavy fire, these government forces manage to board the armored train and pull out of the city, heading for Havana at high speed. What they don’t know Guevara's men have pulled up the tracks ahead. So when the train reaches the damaged section, it derails, twisting violently into the hillside. Guevara's guerrillas swarm over the wreckage. The battered government soldiers inside have no choice but to surrender, and Guevara gratefully takes possession of the train’s ammunition, artillery, and equipment.

With the help of this new firepower, it doesn’t take long for Guevara and his men to seize control of Santa Clara. And news of the battle soon spreads throughout Cuba, with government forces across the country starting to surrender. With his regime collapsing around him, President Batista boards a plane and flees Cuba for the Dominican Republic, taking a personal fortune of more than $300 million with him.

Then just over a week after the fall of Santa Clara, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, enters the capital city, Havana, and declares victory.

Che Guevara will be hailed for his role in this successful revolution. But soon his efforts to transform Cuba into a socialist paradise will head down a dark and bloodstained path, one that will take Guevara far from the island where he made his name, all the way to Africa and, finally, into the jungles of Bolivia.

Act Two: After the Revolution

It’s September 1965 in the Central African Republic of the Congo, six years after the end of the Cuban Revolution.

Che Guevara looks out wearily from a hut at his makeshift base hidden in the mountains. A patrol of Cuban soldiers limps back into camp. And like Guevara himself, they are emaciated and weak from hunger and sickness.

Guevara and his men have been fighting in the war-torn Congo for five months. And nothing has gone as planned.

After victory in the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Che Guevara was tasked by Fidel Castro with purging those the new government considered traitors or war criminals. Following brief tribunals, hundreds were executed by firing squad and Guevara was unapologetic about the deaths, calling them, “not only a necessity for the people of Cuba, but also an imposition of the people.” Guevara then went on to become a powerful member of the new Cuban government. But he proved less effective as an administrator than he had as a soldier. He was put in charge of the Finance Ministry and the National Bank, but his economic reforms didn’t pay off and a split steadily emerged between the hardline Marxist Guevara and the more pragmatic Castro. Eventually, in March 1965, Guevara quietly resigned from all positions in the Cuban government and told Castro that he wanted to support the revolutionary struggle abroad instead. So, he left Cuba and headed for the Congo. A civil war was underway in the country, and Guevara joined a left-wing rebel group fighting against the US-backed military government.

Now, however, Guevara is realizing that his dream of spreading the Marxist revolution to central Africa is in trouble. Unable to speak their language, he struggled to communicate with the local rebel forces. And, although some volunteers have joined him from Cuba, Guevara still doesn’t have the men, supplies, or firepower he needs to fight an effective military campaign. So Congolese government troops, with the support of the CIA, are steadily closing in on Guevara’s position. And it's only a few weeks later, early on the morning of October 24th, 1965, that Guevara is woken with urgent news. Government forces are moving up the mountain and toward Guevara's camp - they will be overrun within minutes. Scrambling out of his hut, Guevara orders an immediate retreat. There’s no time to pack up their things. So, they leave valuable supplies of weapons, ammunition, and communication equipment behind as they set fire to the camp and rush away into the forest.

There will be no repeat of the great victory Guevara won at Santa Clara. The revolution in the Congo is clearly collapsing and Guevara has no intention of being captured by the government troops swarming over the mountains. So a month after his camp was discovered and overrun, Guevara manages to flee to the neighboring country of Tanzania.

There, he recuperates and decides what to do next. His resignation from the Cuban government has now been made public back on the island, and Guevara feels he cannot return there a failure. So instead, he stays at various Cuban embassies and safe houses in Africa and Europe, while he writes his memoirs and searches for a new cause to support.

In the fall of 1966, he finds it.

Traveling under a false passport and disguised as a middle-aged businessman, Guevara flies into La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. From there, he heads into the country’s rural southwest, determined to form a guerilla army to overthrow Bolivia’s Western-backed military government.

But he finds no more success in Bolivia than he did in the Congo. The local Communist Party wants nothing to do with Guevara’s campaign. And he’s soon isolated and running low on supplies. And though he expected to face only the poorly trained regular troops of the Bolivian Army, he is in fact soon hunted by a special CIA-trained anti-insurrection unit.

In early October 1967, the Bolivian forces discover the location of his encampment. And this time there is no escape for Che Guevara. Less than a year after his arrival in Bolivia, Guevara’s revolutionary career will come to a violent end. He will be captured by government troops and executed in a rural schoolhouse. But that won’t be the last chapter of Che Guevara’s story. Because if he was already famous as a freedom fighter in life, then in death, he will become a revolutionary icon.

Act Three: Funeral

It’s October 17th, 1997, in Santa Clara, Cuba, 30 years after Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia.

Fidel Castro stands behind a podium on a stage at the end of a long avenue. The street is packed with people. The atmosphere is festive, but there is also a somber tone to the occasion. Military vehicles parade down the avenue, followed by a jeep pulling a wheeled casket. And inside is Che Guevara's body.

When Guevara was executed in Bolivia, his body was photographed to make it look like he had died in battle. The US-backed Bolivian military didn’t want the world to know the truth - that Che Guevara had been executed. And following his death, Guevara’s remains were dumped in a mass grave near a rural airstrip. Decades later, in 1995, the Bolivian government finally allowed Cuban officials to enter the area and search for Guevara’s body. Two years later, just as the Bolivian government was about to revoke their visas, the researchers found what they were looking for: Che Guevara, still wearing the same olive-green jacket he’d died in.

So now back in Cuba, a choir of schoolchildren sing as Guevara's body approaches a huge mausoleum constructed in his honor. There’s a 21-gun salute, and Fidel Castro himself delivers the eulogy, calling his late friend “a symbol for all the poor of the world.”

In the years since his death, Che Guevara has become an icon. A photograph from 1960 is the defining image of him - with rock star good looks and a determined gaze to the horizon, Guevara seems to be the epitome of youthful romantic rebellion.

But in other places, Guevara is remembered very differently. As much as he was handsome and charismatic, he was also violent, ruthless, and fanatical. In the eyes of some, he became just as bad as the tyrants he fought so hard to defeat. Others, though, still believe he did what he had to do to keep the spirit of the revolution alive. What’s certain is that the image of Che Guevara as an iconic freedom fighter will persist for decades to come, as it has ever since he was executed in a Bolivian schoolhouse on October 9th, 1967.

Outro

Next on History Daily. October 10th, 2014. Two years after being shot by a gunman, 17-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Long.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.