Ernesto Che Guevara

Ernesto Che Guevara was an Argentinean-born, Cuban revolutionary leader who became a left-wing hero.

A photograph of him by Alberto Korda became an iconic image of the 20th century.

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, known as Che Guevara, was born on 14 June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina into a middle-class

family. He studied medicine at Buenos Aires University and during this time travelled widely in South and Central America.

The widespread poverty and oppression he witnessed, fused with his interest in Marxism, convinced him that the only

solution to South and Central America's problems was armed revolution.

In 1954 he went to Mexico and the following year he met Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. Guevara joined Castro's

'26th July Movement' and played a key role in the eventual success of its guerrilla war against Cuban dictator Fulgencio

Batista.

Castro overthrew Batista in 1959 and took power in Cuba. From 1959-1961, Guevara was president of the National Bank of

Cuba, and then minister of industry. In this position, he travelled the world as an ambassador for Cuba. At home, he

carried out plans for land redistribution and the nationalisation of industry.

A strong opponent of the United States, he guided the Castro regime towards alignment with the Soviet Union. The Cuban

economy faltered as a result of American trade sanctions and unsuccessful reforms. During this difficult time Guevara

began to fall out with the other Cuban leaders. He later expressed his desire to spread revolution in other parts of the

developing world, and in 1965 Castro announced that Guevara had left Cuba.

Guevara then spent several months in Africa, particularly the Congo, attempting to train rebel forces in guerrilla

warfare. His efforts failed and in 1966 he secretly returned to Cuba. From Cuba he travelled to Bolivia to lead forces

rebelling against the government of René Barrientos Ortuño. With US assistance, the Bolivian army captured Guevara and

his remaining fighters. He was executed on 9 October 1967 in the Bolivian village of La Higuera and his body was buried in a

secret location. In 1997 his remains were discovered, exhumed and returned to Cuba, where he was reburied.

Ernesto Che Guevara's Quotes

• If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.
• Let the world change you than you can change the world.
• We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.
• I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.
• The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.
• The revolution is not an apple that falls when ripe. You have to make it fall.
• Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!
• Words without deeds are worthless.
• Always struggle for victory.
• It’s a sad thing not to have friends, but it is even sadder not to have enemies.
• To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!
• If any person has a good word for the previous government that is good enough for me to have him shot.
• There is no other definition of socialism valid for us than that of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man.
• Many will call me an adventurer, and that I am... only one of a different sort: one who risks his skin to prove his truths.
• Homeland or death! We will triumph!
• Every day People straighten up the hair, why not the heart?
• Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.