Che Guevara (1928-1967)

Latin American revolutionary. Born on 14 June 1928, in Rosario, Argentina, of well-to-do parents, Ernesto Guevara studied medicine at university and became a doctor in 1953. He visited most of the countries in Latin America, and became a revolutionary when he witnessed the United States intervention to bring down the left-wing regime of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala in 1954.

He travelled to Mexico and joined Fidel Castro, whom he helped in the guerrilla war that brought down the Batista regime in Cuba in 1959. His comrades called him 'Che', a familiar form of address that he used when talking to people.

After the revolution, Che Guevara worked as minister for industries from 1961 to 1965. He then went to the Congo to fight against white mercenaries, and finally travelled to Bolivia in an attempt to export the Cuban revolution to other Latin American countries. His theory was that, in Latin America, a revolutionary leader was more likely to lead the population to revolt than a doctrinaire politician.

He failed dismally, however, and was captured and executed by Bolivian troops on 9 October 1967. Still, his undoubted charisma and his particular brand of Communism – passionately concerned with social justice, and aggressive towards US imperialism but sceptical of Soviet aggrandisement – inspired a generation of student radicals in the 1960s. Many of them owned the iconic poster of Che, which continues to ensure that his image outlives his actual achievements.

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