Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Knut Morte

7Jan12

On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Hinduras and El Salvador. On December 10, 1953, before leaving for Guatemala, Guevara sent and update to his Aunt Beatriz from San Jose, Costa Rica. Speaks of traversing through the dominions of the United Fruit Company (listed above), how terrible the Capitalist Octupuses are. This affirmed his head hunting tone, necessity for armed struggle and taking initiative against imperialism. He wrote on a photograph of then recently deceased Stalin vowing not to rest until these octopuses have been vanquished. Later in July, Guevara arrived in Guatemala where President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman headed a democratically elected government that, through land reform was attempting to end the latifundia system. To accomplish this, Arbenz had enacted a major land feform program, where all uncultivated portions of large land holdings were to be expropriated and redistributed to landless peasants. The biggest land owner, and one most affected by the reforms, was the United Fruit Company, from which the Arbenz gov. had already taken more than 225,000 uncultivated acres. Pleased with the road the nation was heading down, Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary. In Guatemala City, Guevara sought out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was well-connected politically as a member of the APRA. She introduced to high officials of the Arbenz Gov. Guevara then established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro through the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequen use of the Argentine vocative interjection che, a slang casual speech filler used similarly to "eh" or "pal". Guevara's attempts to obtain medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. On May 15, 1954, a shipment of Skoda infantry and light artillery weopons was sent from Czech for Guatemala. Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed milita organized by communist youth, but frustrated with the groups inaction he soon returned to medical duties. Following the American Coup Arbenz took refuge in the MExican Embassy. Guevaras repeated calls to resist were noted by supporters of the coup and he was marked for murder. After Gadea was arrested Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to mexico. Her married Gadea in MExico in Sept. 1955. The overthrow of ARbenz cemented Guevaras view of the US as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any governments that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic. "The last Latin American revolutionary democracy - that of Jacobo Arbenz - failed as a result of the cold premeditated aggression carried out by the USA it's visible head was the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a man who, through a rare coincidence, was also a stockholder and attorney for the United Fruit Company...