What was che guevara doing in bolivia

This trip, combined with the firsthand experience of the US coup in Guatemala, radicalized Che and made him an avowed communist. With a small force of just 82 initial soldiers, Che and his compatriots were able to overthrow Batista with careful planning and strong tactics.

While fighting in Cuba, Che developed his own set of theories on guerilla warfare and insurgencies in general. And third, Che believed that the rural areas are the greatest source of strength for insurgent forces. After the Cuban revolution, Che worked under the Castro regime as the economic minister. He found however that the life of a government worker did not suit him, as he had difficulty compromising with others and was much more interested in furthering his cause of a global communist revolution.

His first attempt in the Congo was a failure, so Che decided he would try again in Bolivia. The Bolivians. The President of Bolivia at the time was Rene Barrientos. Barrientos proved himself to be incredibly popular amongst the peasantry. This was due to his dedication to reforms that were designed to improve their lives. Land reform, welfare programs and rural education were among the programs that his regime implemented to win their support.

Because of this focus on the peasants he was able to build a very strong political coalition composed of the rural peasantry, an urban anti-labor movement, the merchant class and the military.

Even though he has been a military commander in the past, Barrientos was not in charge of the military campaign against Che. That responsibility fell upon General Ovando. Ovando and Barrientos had worked for many years including during the coup that established the government that was still operating in In fact, the two men had ruled together as co-presidents until Barrientos stepped down to legitimately run for president.

Ovanado was a moderate and loyal member of the MNR and was very anti-communist. The United States. Compared to the other two groups, the United States role in the conflict was not as overt nor as involved. However, the United States had been assisting the Bolivians with a variety military support since They had been providing training, guns and other equipment to help keep the Bolivian government as stable as possible. As time passed, American assistance jumped to almost 3 million a year by During this time period though, the US was involved in a conflict of its own: Vietnam.

By , the United States was in the middle of the increasingly unpopular war and though it was still a couple of years away from the Tet Offensive, the US was devoting more and more resources and manpower into the war. As a result, the American public was becoming more resistant to the idea of US involvement in foreign conflicts. The Conflict. After a consultation with Fidel Castro, Che decided that the time was right for a South American communist revolution.

He and Castro settled on Bolivia for two main reasons. By that point, Che hoped, their military presence would be strong enough to drag the Americans into a second Vietnam. The second, is that the social conditions mainly the divide between the racial groups and the mining unions would, theoretically, make the people in Bolivia susceptible to communist ideology.

Emulating the revolution in Cuba, Che Guevara snuck in with a small contingent of soldiers into the country on November 7th, They soon begin to try and set up camp within the country. They tried to place down a permanent base and had a meeting with locals who might have been sympathetic to their cause.

The meeting was cordial if not a little tense as neither men could agree on what direction the resistance should take. Guevara insisted that he be the one to lead the rebels, even though Monje warned that Bolivians would not be welcoming to an outsider preaching a communist ideology. The rebels continued to try and build supply caches and to chart out the region in which they were attempting to live.

Unfortunately for the rebels, luck was not on their side as the Bolivian government soon became aware of their presence. This confirmed to the Bolivians that they were dealing with a violent rebellion. Che chose the later option and ambushed the military in Nancahuazu and Iripiti.

These ambushes were successful as the rebels killed 18 government soldiers and lost none of their own. But, the game was not to last. In April of , the US saw that the Bolivians were having trouble with an insurgency, so they sent in 16 American Green Berets to train the locals in counter insurgent tactics, creating the 2nd Ranger Battalion.

The US forces provided the Bolivians with up to date equipment and the latest training on counter-insurgent tactics. Instead of announcing a full blown invasion like Che would have hoped, the United States continued with its mission of training the Bolivian soldiers and providing them with the tools to accomplish their mission. As time went on, the rebels were having a more difficult time staying in the fight. The villages and towns, which under normal circumstances would be a source of strength for the insurgents, was turning into a liability as the locals would often report the movements of the rebels to the local authorities.

The situation would only continue to worsen for rebels as the army kept the pressure on. The already inhospitable terrain became a nightmare to navigate between dense jungles and raging rivers. In addition, the small urban support network that had been hastily built fell apart as the Bolivian government arrested its 14 members and leader, Loyola Guzman. In September of , the American trained 2nd Battalion was deployed to devastating effect. Soon after Che was captured by the Bolivian army, and interrogated by Felix Rodriguez and the other Bolivians.

The boulder behind which Che sheltered is daubed with graffiti. Farming tools rust among the overgrown foliage. The hut of an old woman mentioned by Che in his diary — today kept in a vault in the Central Bank of Bolivia — is in ruins. The village was once home to about 75 families; today 15 or so remain. Alcides Osinaga, 73, saw the captured Guevara pass by in rags, covered in filth, head bowed, bleeding from his wounds. Half a dozen hostels have sprung up in the village. Inside, every surface is covered with tributes and keepsakes from pilgrims from all over the world.

A cottage Che industry has also taken root in Vallegrande. Guides ferry tourists around the hospital laundry where his body was displayed and the formerly unmarked tombs where he and his comrades were buried. This dribble of international tourism will turn into a flood in the days leading up to 9 October this year. Festival-style infrastructure is being set up on the abandoned airstrip.

Workers are smartening up a newly built Che Guevara Cultural Centre and frantically improving the power lines to La Higuera, where a Cuban doctor and nurse are repainting Che-related monuments.

It follows five years in which progressive governments have fallen to centre-right administrations in quick succession, including in neighbouring Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay.

Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. He proposed The most devastating fire in United States history burns in Wisconsin on October 8, Some 1, people lost their lives and 2 billion trees were consumed by flames. Despite the massive scale of the blaze, it was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began later that Born in in the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn was a leading writer and critic of Soviet internal oppression.

Arrested in for criticizing the Stalin regime, he York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France.

The exploits later earned York the Medal of Honor. Born in Live TV.