Cuba
ends controversy over Che Guevara's body
Yahoo! News.
Havana, Oct 5 (IANS) Cuba has confirmed
that the body found at a grave in Bolivia's
Vallegrande town was that of Ernesto 'Che'
Guevara, thus ending a controversy over
the authenticity of the body of the socialist
revolutionary who was slain by Bolivian
army in 1967.
Jorge Gonzalez Perez, who led the team
that recovered Che's body, said Thursday
that the evidence found at the burial site
was sufficient to prove that the remains
were those of Guevara, Spanish news agency
EFE said Friday quoting official Juventud
Rebelde newspaper.
Cuba, nevertheless, conducted DNA tests
on the body to confirm the findings, Perez
was quoted as saying.
Guevara, born June 14, 1928, met Fidel
Castro in Mexico in 1956 and joined the
armed uprising in the Sierra Maestra mountains
that eventually led to the overthrow of
Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
During the first few years of the revolution,
Che, who was granted Cuban citizenship,
was named head of the country's central
bank and, later, of the industry ministry.
His plans to spread socialist revolution
throughout Latin America took him in 1966
to Bolivia, where he was captured by the
Bolivian army on Oct 8, 1967, taken to a
school in the town of La Higuera and was
executed the following day.
Che's body was mutilated and buried at
a site that remained secret until retired
Bolivian General Mario Vargas Salinas revealed
in November 1995 that the remains had been
buried in a mass grave in Vallegrande.
In 1997, to mark the 30th anniversary of
his death, the Cuban government inaugurated
a memorial to Che and his comrades in Santa
Clara, some 270 km east of Havana.
|