Che Guevara's Bolivian Campaign and Capture
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, having resigned from the Cuban government in 1965 to pursue revolution in Africa and then Latin America, led a small guerrilla column into the Bolivian highlands in November 1966, intending to spark a continent-wide revolution. His theory of the 'foco' — that a small guerrilla force could create the conditions for revolution through exemplary action — had worked in Cuba but proved catastrophically inapplicable in Bolivia. The Bolivian peasantry, largely Quechua-speaking and deeply suspicious of outsiders, failed to support him. The Bolivian army, trained and advised by US Special Forces and CIA officers, tracked his column through the jungle. Guevara was captured on October 8, 1967, wounded and exhausted, in the village of La Higuera. The following day, on orders from the Bolivian government that were either approved or not opposed by Washington, he was executed by a Bolivian soldier. His death transformed him into a global revolutionary icon — the famous photograph by Alberto Korda became one of the most reproduced images of the twentieth century. His diary, captured by the CIA and initially suppressed, was later published and became a canonical document of revolutionary literature. The failure of the Bolivian foco marked the end of the Cuban-inspired continental guerrilla strategy, though leftist insurgencies continued by other means in Central America.
- Year: 1966 CE
- Category: Military
