Guerrilla leader Che Guevera traveled to Bolivia in the hopes of starting a revolution against its government. On October 7, 1967, an informant apprised the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Guevara’s guerrilla encampment in the Yuro ravine. The next day, they encircled the area and Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner while leading a detachment.
Guevara was tied up and taken to a mud schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera. For the next day and half, he refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers and would only speak quietly to Bolivian soldiers. Later that morning on October 9, the Bolivian President ordered that Guevara be killed. He was shot nine times and his body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby Vallegrande where photographs were taken.
After the execution, several of Guevara’s personal items, including a watch, were taken and shown to reporters during the ensuing years. On October 15, Fidel Castro acknowledged that Guevara was dead and proclaimed three days of public mourning throughout Cuba. On October 18, Castro addressed a crowd of almost one million people in Havana and spoke about Guevara’s character as a revolutionary.
