First I thought, I bore you with a report on the Council of Chaldecon that began on
October 8, 451 and was an important milestone in finalizing the creeds of the Catholic Church, especially in establishing the doctrines about the divine nature of Jesus Christ, but I decided for a two part story, to be continued tomorrow.
On
October 8, 1967 a unit, not more than 20 men, of the Ejercito de Liberacion de Bolivia (FLN), was detected near the village of La Higuera in the Bolivian jungle, by a unit of the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the Bolivian Army. The troops had received information from local people, that a group of guerilleros had made camp during the previous day in a ravine on the San Antonio River.
During the morning the army moved in, took up positions and around lunchtime they launched an attack on the rebels. The Bolivian Special Unit had been trained and equipped for Anti-Guerilla operations by the US Army, and the FLN guerilla didnt stand a chance. They had been chased through the jungle for weeks now, had lost many of their fighters and were completely exhausted.
In the ensuing gunfight, a few guerilleros are killed almost instantaneously, many others are wounded. The battle is almost over, as the advancing rangers encounter another rebel, lying on the ground, heavily wounded already, but still trying to return fire. The soldiers shoot him a couple more times, in the arm and leg, disarming him, and as they come closer, seemingly to kill him, the guerillero shouts: Dont shoot! Im Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead.
The Rangers might have found that difficult to believe, but they took no chances and brought the prisoner before their commanding officer, Captain Prado. Its not recorded how long it took Prado to be convinced of the rebels identity, but when he was, the significance of the moment didnt escape him. He sent a radio message to his headquarters: Hello Saturno. We have Papa!
Dr. Ernesto Che Guevara
Papa was the code word for Dr. Ernesto (Che) Guevara, hero of the Cuban revolution, personal friend and close political ally of Fidel Castro, former President of the Cuban National Bank and Minister for Industry. In 1965 Che Guevara had resigned from all positions in Cuba, and in the following years helped to establish Marxist resistance movements all over the world, and for while led a Cuban military operation in support of Congolese Marxist rebels.
In 1967 Che Guevara had come to Bolivia in order to organize the Communist rebellion against the brutal military dictatorship that, with US-American support, had ruled the country since the early sixties.
Naturally, Ches activities hadnt won him any friends in the US government, that saw the spread of the Cuban revolution into Central and South America as a danger for its economic and political domination of the continents. Che advanced quickly to the USAs political enemy number one, and the US government invested heavily into the Bolivian army to hunt and find him.
In the evening of October 8, Che Guevara and other survivors were brought to La Higuera and imprisoned in the village school.
The news of Che Guevaras capture in the Bolivian jungle spread quickly, and two days later they reached Washington and Walter Rostow, Lyndon B. Johnsons National security advisor, a staunch Anti-communist, who must have been rather pleased.(To be continued)
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Full list:
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Edited by Komnenos