1967: Che Guevara Captured and Shot Trying to Spark a Revolution in Bolivia

Che Guevara had already helped topple one government, fighting alongside Fidel Castro in Cuba, when he slipped into Bolivia in 1966 to light the same fuse there. He spent nearly a year leading a ragged guerrilla band through the jungle, hunted by the Bolivian army with American backing, before troops cornered and captured him on 8 October 1967 in a remote ravine.

He was held overnight in a schoolhouse in a small village, then shot dead the following day on orders from the Bolivian government, which wanted him silenced rather than put on public trial. His death turned him instantly into a global revolutionary icon, his face reproduced on posters and T-shirts for decades after the jungle where he fell was forgotten.

Bust of Che Guevara in La Higuera. LA HIGUERA, BOLIVIA - AUGUST 6: Monument to Che Guevara in La Higuera, Bolivia seen on August 6, 2014. Guevara was executed in La Higuera in 1967 | ID 54527187 © Jesse Kraft | Dreamstime.com
ID 54527187 © Jesse Kraft | Dreamstime.com

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