Che Guevara's 1967 execution was passed off as a battle death
On this day · 9 October 1967
Bolivia said Che died of battle wounds. A CIA memo written two days later recorded the kill order, the time and the rifle.
Che Guevara was executed at about 1:15 p.m. on 9 October 1967 in the village of La Higuera, Bolivia, shot with a burst from an M-2 automatic rifle on direct orders from Bolivian Army headquarters in La Paz — and then presented to the world as a man who had died of his battle wounds.
We know the difference because the CIA had an officer in the village. Felix Rodriguez, attached to the 2nd Ranger Battalion under cover as a Bolivian officer, received the kill order himself, and the agency’s account reached the Secretary of State within two days.
How the story was told, and untold
- 8 October: Guevara is captured with a leg wound, “otherwise in fair condition”, according to the CIA. An agency officer on the scene cables that he is “managing to keep him alive”, which is “very hard”.
- 9 October, 11:50: The Rangers receive a direct order from La Paz to kill him. Rodriguez talks with Guevara for about two hours first.
- 9 October, 13:15: The order is carried out. His hands are cut off as proof of death and his body is buried in an unmarked grave.
- 10 October: A Bolivian army press conference says he died of wounds from the battle, having been in a coma when captured.
- 11 October: CIA Director Richard Helms circulates a memo titled “Capture and Execution of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara”, contradicting the army’s account.
- 1997: His remains are found and returned to Cuba for reburial, in a ceremony attended by Fidel Castro.
The record is not tidy in every detail: the National Security Archive notes that Helms’s report and Rodriguez’s 1975 statement disagree on whether the Bolivian telegraph codes “600” and “700” meant keep him alive or kill him.
Why kill him rather than try him? Bolivia had spared the captured French writer Régis Debray, and his case had brought it months of trouble. Walt Rostow’s verdict to President Johnson:
“I regard this as stupid, but it is understandable from a Bolivian standpoint.” — Walt Rostow, 11 October 1967
The day before, Guevara’s capture had ended his small, failing campaign.
Sources & references
3 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 3 independent sources.
