Thirty years ago, on October 8, 1967, gunfire echo Essay Example For Students

Thirty years ago, on October 8, 1967, gunfire echo Essay ed through a steepravine of the Andes Mountains in southern Bolivia. The guerrilla band ledby Ernesto Che Guevara a chief lieutenant in the Sierra Maestra, authorof a book on guerilla tactics, one-time president of Cubas National Bankand later Minister of Industries under Castro, and who renounced his Cubancitizenship and set off to devote his services to the revolutionary causein other lands was pinned down and surrounded by U.S.-trained BolivianArmy Rangers. Less than a year earlier, Guevara and a team of cadres hadsecretly traveled from Cuba to Bolivia to launch a guerrilla war, hoping totopple Bolivias pro-U.S. military government. Guevara had gone up into themountains with about 50 supporters. Within months they were discovered byBolivian troops and an intense pursuit started. Trying to escape thegovernment forces, Guevara divided his supporters into two groups, and wasnever able to reunite them. His diary records that, by late August, hisgroup was exhausted, demoralized and d own to 22 men. On August 31 the othergroup was ambushed and wiped out crossing a river. On September 26,Bolivian army units ambushed Ches remaining forces near the isolatedmountain huts of La Higuera. The guerrillas found no way out of theencirclement. Several died in the shooting. Guevara himself was wounded inthe leg. He and two other fighters were captured on October 8 and taken toan old one-room schoolhouse in La Higuera. The next day, October 9, ahelicopter flew in a man called Felix Ramos who wore the uniform of aBolivian officer. Ramos took charge of the prisoner. Two hours later, CheGuevara and both other guerrillas were executed. The weapons and equipment of the killers were American-made. TheBolivian officer who took Guevara prisoner had been trained at Fort Bragg at a U.S. school for army coups, murder and counterinsurgency. And the manin charge at the scene, Captain Ramos, was a veteran CIA field agent,Felix Rodriguez. For years, the U.S. government had armed the Bolivianmilitary and riddled it with their paid agents. As soon as Guevaras newguerrilla force was discovered, Washington sent new teams of CIA and GreenBerets killers into Bolivia including Rodriguez and his fellow Cuban-American agent, Gustavo Villoldo to assist the capture of Guevara anddestruction of his guerrilla band. U.S. transport planes arrived loadedwith more arms, radio equipment, and napalm. Rodriguez, who wasmasquerading as a Bolivian army captain, had previously led a CIA deathsquad in Vietnam (later, this same Felix Rodriguez would be personallyappointed by George Bush Sr. to be the key CIA operative at El SalvadorsIlopango Air Fo rce base during the 1980s, where Rodriguez oversaw the CIAsnotorious cocaine-for-arms air flights). Rodriguez and Villoldo became partof a CIA task force in Bolivia that included the case officer for theoperation, Jim, another Cuban American, Mario Osiris Riveron, and twoagents in charge of communications in Santa Clara. Rodriguez emerged as the most important member of the group. After alengthy interrogation of one captured guerrilla, he was instrumental infocusing the efforts of the 2nd Ranger Battalion on the Villagrande regionwhere he believed Guevaras rebels were operating. Although he apparentlywas under CIA instructions to do everything possible to keep him alive,it was Rodriguez who transmitted the order to execute Guevara from theBolivian High Command to the soldiers at La Higueras he also directedthem not to shoot Guevara in the face so that his execution wounds wouldlook like they were received in combat and personally informed Che thathe would be killed. It was Rodriguez who pocketed Che Guevaras wristwatchas a souvenir (which he often proudly showed to reporters during theensuing years) and flew Guevaras body to the nearby military base atVallegrande. Early on October 11, after cutting off Guevaras hands asevidence, the killers dumped his body in an unmarked grave nearVallegrandes airs trip where it was not discovered until June 1997. The theme of Guy de Maupassant story The Necklace EssayHistorian Herbert S. Klein notes that a counterinsurgency policy tocombat internal subversion became a major theme of United States trainingfor the Bolivian army. In 1963 Argentine-trained Bolivian officersestablished the Center of Instruction for Special Troops (Centro deInstruccin para Tropas Especiales CITE) under the Seventh Division inCochabamba. In addition, by the end of 1963 Bolivia had more graduates fromthe United States Army Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, NorthCarolina, than any other Latin American country. A total of 659 Bolivianofficers received training at the School of the Americas in 1962- 63, and20 of the 23 senior Bolivian officers attended or visited the school during1963-64. United States military aid increased from US$100,000 in 1958 toUS$3.2 million in 1964. This aid, which included weapons and trainingoutside Bolivia, enabled Paz Estenssoro to strengthen the army moreextensively than MNR leaders originally had intended. According to Klein,Paz Estenssoro constantly justified rearming the military to the UnitedStates as a means of preventing communist subversion.In March 1967, Bolivia became a prime target of Cuban-supportedsubversion when Ernesto Guevara and his tiny National Liberation Army(Ejrcito de Liberacin Nacional ELN) launched their aforementionedguerrilla campaign. Despite its increased United States training, Boliviasarmy still consisted mostly of untrained Indian conscripts and had fewerthan 2,000 troops ready for combat. Therefore, while the army kept the 40-man guerrilla group contained in a southwestern area of the country, an 800-man Ranger force began training in counterinsurgency methods. Withcounterinsurgency instructors from the United States Southern Commandheadquarters in Panama, the army established a Ranger School in Santa CruzDepartment. By late July 1967, three well-trained and well-equippedBolivian Ranger battalions were ready for action. The armys increasedcapabilities and its decisive defeat of the legendary Cuban guerrillaleader enhanced its prestige. The fact that Barrientos vice president,Luis Adolfo Siles Salines, a conservative civilian, had to requestpermission from the military high command to assume his mandate afterBarrientos death in April 1969 indicated how powerful the army had becomeas an institution.