Che in Boliva

Che’s personal views were evolving and changing in the mid and late 1960s. He was becoming more interested in international affairs and was focusing more and more on the international political movements against imperialism and in particular the United States government (McCormick 348). Che’s focus on internationalist issues irritated Fidel, who was left to deal with Cuba, which was increasingly suffering economic ills (McCormick 349). His focus on international anti-imperialist struggle included a particular interest in African politics, to the point he would go to the Congo for a short period of time (McCormick 348-349). After the Congo, Che would choose to assist a communist struggle in the South American country of Bolivia (McCormick 349).

Che’s experience in Bolivia would be a low point and eventually the final note in his life. Che initially tried to ally his effort in Bolivia with the existing communist party in the regions, which went under the name of the Bolivian Communist Party (also know as the PCB) (McCormick 350). But this did not go as planned and eventually Che would end up alienating the party and he would not end up gaining their support (McCormick 350). After quite a bit of planning, Che and his group entered the country of Bolivia. Initially they had thought they were going to use the native population to assist with their revolutionary effort, but the native population lacked the interested in Che’s plot, or for what they could understand of it. Che did not realize this population spoke a specific indigenous language which he and his colleagues were unprepared to communicate in (McCormick 350). In the following months, Che’s forces had been uncovered by the Bolivian government, and in turn the government began slowly picking off individual soldiers hiding in the mountains, leaving Che’s troops to slowly decrease in number. Eventually his troops would be forced to consume impromptu culinary creations of rodents (McCormick 351). Additionally Che’s pulmonary health began to erode (McCormick 351). If this wasn’t enough, Che also had to combat an increasing tactful Bolivian government military response (McCormick 352). As time went by, Che’s forces continued to decrease until he found himself fleeing Bolivia (McCormick 353). The Bolivian government, well supported with assistance from the United States, found Che’s extremely dwindling group hiding and killed Che (McCormick 353).