On October 9, 1967, the main leader of the Cuban Revolution, Che Grava, was arrested in Bolivia, and the local government forces received instructions from their superiors to escort him to a classroom in the small town of Laiguera and executed him secretly.
During his lifetime, Che Grava was known in the Western world as the "Red Robin Hood" and "Communist Don Quixote". After his arrest, the CIA negotiated with the Bolivian government to bring him down. Fearing leaks, the Bolivian government quietly executed Che Grava to conceal the whereabouts of his body from the outside world.
It wasn't until 47 years later, in 2014, that the Daily Mail first published a photograph of Che Glava's body, his clothes disheveled, nine bullet holes below his waist, and his eyes not closed until the last moment.
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In June 1928, Che Grava was born into a wealthy family in Rosario, Argentina, South America. As a teenager, Che Grava was lively, quick-witted and active, with a strong curiosity about all the unknown new things.
Che Grava's family is well-known in the region, both parents are from large Spanish families, and their ancestors were the governors of the Río de la Plata-Paraná region and the last Spanish governor in Peru.
Che Grava was influenced by his family style, loved history and philosophy, and had a strong romantic tendency. In 1950, the 22-year-old Che Grava rode a motorcycle through 12 northern argentine provinces, a trip that made him fully feel the charm of the journey, and what he saw and heard along the way greatly broadened Che Grava's horizons.
A year later, Che Grava chose to take a break from school and traveled to South America on a motorcycle with his companion, Dr. Alberto Granado.
There, Che Grava was struck by the beauty of the natural beauty and touched by the spirit of the locals who suffered but still fought tenaciously. During the ride, Che Grava often camped out in the wild, talking to farmers and learning about their living conditions. As the more and more we communicated, the deeper the communication became, and Che Grava's thinking gradually changed.
Che Grava wrote in his diary:
"Now I understand that my destiny is to travel, or more appropriately, to travel is our destiny, because Alvato feels the same way. It all seems to be both predestined and as if that was the case. ”
After arriving in the leprosy village of San Pablo, Che Grava's motorcycle was sent to the repair shop again because of "weathering", and the local learned that two Argentine "leprosy experts" had traveled to South America, so they specially published the news in the newspaper.
Che Grava was very enthusiastic about staying in the village, helping the local doctors to shelter and care for lepers, and was genuinely loved by the patients. Before leaving, locals also held a 24th birthday party for Che Grava. As the disabled lepers performed instruments such as flutes, guitars, saxophones, accordions, etc., Che Grava was deeply moved and realized that "the beauty of Peru is no more beautiful than the beauty of the human heart at this moment."
The trip enabled Che Grava to see the connections between blacks and whites, colonizers and colonizers, racism and poverty and backwardness, and he wrote for the first time in his diary that the twentieth century was a "strange twentieth century."
In August 1952, Che Grava and his wife returned home in Argentina to pick up their university studies after completing their trip to Latin America.
At this time, the political situation in Europe was increasingly tense, and the Cold War atmosphere divided the world into two major social and ideological camps. Che Grava had no interest in this struggle, and he used the medical knowledge he learned to successfully induce asthma from childhood and avoided the compulsory military service in Argentina. In June 1953, Che Grava graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and became a doctor.
After graduation, Che Grava was still haunted by his cycling experience, and in July of that year, he set out again, passing through Bolivia and Ecuador, and finally staying in Guatemala for a long time as a doctor.
During this time, Che Grava often went deep into the slums to treat the poor and witnessed many poor and sick people who died because they could not afford treatment. While constantly trying to solve these problems, Che Grava is also thinking: Is there a way to help everyone get out of this difficult life?
In 1954, in a coup d'état in Guatemala, the U.S.-backed dictator Armas subverted the Albans regime and wanted the Communist Party in the country, and Che Gravain's involvement in local progressive activities was also blacklisted by the CIA, and he had to flee to Mexico, where he became acquainted with the fidel Castro brothers, the future leader of the Cuban Communist Party.
The Castro brothers came from wealthy families, and at the age of 17 they joined forces with domestic workers against their capitalist fathers, and after entering politics, Fidel tried to change the status quo of the country through elections. However, when the dictator came to power and dissolved parliament, the Castro brothers realized that a revolution was necessary to truly change reality.
After meeting Che Grava, the three of them were at first sight, and Che Grava was curious about the Marxism-Leninism of the Castro brothers, and under the guidance of the two men, he began to actively move closer to communism.
The ruler of Cuba at the time was Batista, who during his tenure massacred progressives and was opposed by the Cuban masses. In 1955, Che Grava, who had become a socialist believer, joined the "July 26" revolutionary organization, fighting alongside the Castro brothers.
After three years of guerrilla warfare, in 1959, the Cuban Communist Party won the victory, Fidel Castro became the supreme leader, and Che Grava, due to military merits, was promoted to minister of industry in Cuba, the prosecutor of the military prison in Castel Cabaña, the governor of the National Bank, and the minister of defense, and began a new "journey".
However, che Grava was not the director of che Grava in post-war economic construction and foreign relations, and during these positions he had serious disagreements with Castro.
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Cuba's communist regime posed a potential political threat to the United States, and Kennedy, when he took office, was torn about how to deal with his own "South American back garden."
As cuba's supreme leader, Castro's style is down-to-earth and pragmatic, and he visited the United States in 1959 to try to make friends with the United States without establishing diplomatic relations, but this idea was quickly disrupted by the CIA.
In 1960, the CIA, which had always been obsessed with the Cuban communist regime, submitted to President Kennedy a plan of action, using Cuban counter-revolutionaries in exile in the United States to stage a coup d'état to force Castro to step down, known as the Bay of Pigs Incident.
The Bay of Pigs incident ended in Castro's victory, and the United States unilaterally imposed an economic blockade on Cuba. Che Grava, Castro's staunchest supporter, advocated learning from the Soviet model after the war to restore the economy and industrialize Cuba.
At the instigation of Che Grava, Cuba moved closer to the Soviet side and relied on Soviet economic assistance to tide over the difficulties. Subsequently, in order to deter the United States and achieve the purpose of threat, the Soviet Union tried to deploy medium-range missiles in Cuba in 1962, which was finally detected by the United States in advance, and after repeated competitions between the two sides, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw all missile projects under construction.
The missile crisis exacerbated the rift between the romantic Che Grava and the pragmatic Castro, who disagreed with compromise with the United States and was ashamed to be with the Soviet Union.
In addition, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the two had different views on economic development and the handling of political enemies, and at the end of December 1964, after completing his mission to Visit China and other tasks, Che Grava secretly left Cuba in April of the following year to accept the invitation of the Organization of African Unity and devote himself to the cause of democratic liberation of the Congo.
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When Che Grava led a revolutionary detachment of Cubans to the Congo, he soon found that the revolutionary situation in the local area was completely different from that of Cuba, that the tactical strategy of guerrilla warfare could not be carried out here at all, that the local people had a great sense of distrust of outsiders, that the base area could not be expanded, and that the personnel could not be replenished and recuperated.
In the midst of the brutal struggle, the guerrillas led by Che Grava suffered increasing casualties and were in a difficult situation. Che Grava himself was wounded several times in battle, and at one point wanted to send his companions away, leaving himself in Africa.
At the urging of the crowd, Che Grava had to agree to move together. After that, he led the team to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, Prague, and secretly returned to Cuba through East Germany to prepare for the bolivian revolution.
In 1966, Che Grava led guerrillas into Bolivia to support the communist cause there. Using his guerrilla warfare experience and theory accumulated during the Cuban Liberation War, he trained and trained a group of local people to roam the mountains and fight in various mountains, which became a major problem for the Bolivian government.
The president of Bolivia at the time was René Barientos, who came to power with the support of the CIA and held a grudge against communism, and after the CIA learned of Che Grava's whereabouts, Barientos immediately sent troops to the mountains to encircle the guerrillas.
In October 1967, the 39-year-old Che Grava was surrounded and suppressed by government forces in Bolivia, and the troops suffered heavy casualties. In order to find a suitable rear base and escape the enemy's pursuit, Che Grava led a guerrilla group to the vicinity of the small town of Laigra.
At this time, the number of guerrillas was less than 20, the soldiers were depressed, and the sentries in the front hallucinated due to high tension, mistaking the local peasants for enemy troops, causing a panic.
Che Grava was relieved and planned to launch a breakout on 7 October, leading the remaining 17 men to other areas.
On 8 October, Che Grava led his men to a weak defensive point for the government forces, but to his surprise, a few days earlier someone in the group had defected and defected to the government forces, informing them of the specific location of Che Grava and the guerrillas.
The guerrillas were ambushed by government forces during the march, the 17-man line was completely broken, and Che Grava was wounded in both legs and unable to move during the battle, and was arrested by government forces after running out of bullets.
The Bolivian government at the time was so disgusted with Che Grava that it immediately ordered a secret execution.
The CIA learned of the news and sent someone to negotiate with the Bolivian government to ask for the surrender of Che Grava. The CIA believed that Che Grava's influence around the world, if surrendered, would deal a serious blow to the socialist camp led by the Soviet Union.
Faced with CIA demands, the Bolivian government falsely claimed that Che Grava had been killed by soldiers in the fighting, and then issued a secret order on October 9 calling for the man to be resolutely executed.
After being relayed layer by layer, the order was passed to the lowest level soldier, but an accident occurred.
Four or five corporals ordered to carry out the execution were too timid to approach the adobe house where he was being held.
Several people shirked their responsibilities and decided to draw lots to select the executors, and finally Mario Tran drew the shortest one and had to carry out the orders of his superiors.
As he stepped through the door, Che Grava, who was badly injured and unable to move, turned his head.
Mario Tran had long heard of Che Grava's guerrilla warfare in Latin America and Africa, and in order to carry out the execution, he poured himself half a bottle of wine and dared to open the door.
When he raised his gun, he was so stunned by Che Grava's gaze that he couldn't pull the trigger for a moment.
And che Grava, who saw the cowardly executioner, stood up slowly, his eyes sharp as a knife, and asked Mario Tran: Are you scared? Shoot!
Mario Tran was so overwhelmed by his momentum that he did not dare to shoot and exit the door.
Knowing that Mario Tran did not dare to move, he angrily rebuked Ayoloya and Selich and ordered him to shoot Che Grava immediately.
This time, Mario Tran fired a pistol at Che Grava below his waist, one of which hit the middle of the artery and spurted blood.
Instructed by the Bolivian government, Mario Tran avoided key points such as head and chest, prolonging the death of Che Grava.
The great international communist fighter who traveled Latin America on a motorcycle, joined forces with Fidel Castro to win the War of Liberation of Cuba, mediated the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and confronted the United States.
Since Che Grava was an internationally renowned communist fighter, Bolivia feared that the news would leak and the government would face unprecedented international pressure, so it sent soldiers to shoot the "Red Robin Hood". In order to confirm his true identity, the Bolivian government also ordered people to cut off his body and send his hands to the identification center.
After the death of Che Grava, Bolivian Reycinaldo Ustali Arce, as a military doctor accompanying government troops, was allowed to enter the adobe house to witness his body and take photographs of the scene.
However, according to the government orders of the time, these photos could not be made public. Arce was also persecuted by the Bolivian government and exiled abroad for revealing the truth about Che Grava's death.
The executioner, Mario Tran, was protected by the government and settled in the Camp santa Cruz de la Ciela and became the owner of a small bar.
30 years after the death of Che Grava, Castro sent someone to find and retrieve his body. On October 14, 1997, the body of Che Grava was transferred to Santa Clara, where he had fought before his death, and hundreds of thousands of people spontaneously went to the shrine to send the souls, and the streets were filled with flowers.
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