When Bolivian soldiers executed Che Guevara 39 years ago, they initially tried to make his execution not look like an execution.
Che Guevara, 20th-century revolutionary icon and favorite subject for posters and T-shirts everywhere, was captured in a ravine by Bolivian special forces near his guerrilla camp. With his leg wounded and his rifle useless after being hit by a bullet and his pistol either mysteriously or incompetently devoid of an ammunition magazine, Guevara promptly surrendered. As the soldiers moved in, Guevara was reported to have said, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."
Nobody shot him then and there, but it wouldn't be long in coming.
Hearing the news of his capture, the delighted and giddy President René Barrientos of Boliva, whose overthrow, after all, had been the objective of Guevara, wasted no time in ordering his execution. After all, Guevara's compatriot Fidel Castro had once been captured by Batista forces in Cuba, only to later escape and start his revolution. Barrientos was not about to take the same risk with Guevara.
Guevara was brought to an old rundown school house and permitted to spend the night there unexecuted. The next day, straws were drawn. One Mario Terán, a sergeant, drew the short one, and it fell on him to carry out the execution.
"I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward. You are only going to kill a man," said Guevara as his executioner came for him.
In an effort to make his execution not look like an execution, Guevara was shot several times in the legs; his face, however, was left undisturbed so that he could later be more readily identified.
In a final ironic note, the socialist, champion-of-the-down-trodden, anti-capitalist Guevara's image must today be making somebody a lot of money in the T-shirt industry.
Additional anniversary-related reading:
Thirty-Ninth Anniversary of Guevara's Death
Fortieth Anniversary of Guevara's Death
