Cubans Pay Tribute to Ernesto ’Che’ Guevara on 50th Anniversary of His Death Rigoberto Diaz - AFP News
go to original October 9, 2017

In the Shadow of El Che: What has Che Guevara's legacy been in Cuba, and would he recognise the country that it has now become? The BBC's Cuba correspondent, Will Grant, reports from Havana. (BR Docs)

Tens of thousands of Cubans turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, on the 50th anniversary of his death.

An estimated 70,000 people thronged the streets outside a mausoleum in this town 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the capital Havana which houses the remains of Guevara and of some of his former comrades.

President Raul Castro, dressed in his general's uniform, was among those attending the ceremony in Santa Clara, which was the site of a December 1958 battle that finally sent Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

Raul Castro fought alongside Guevara during the Cuban revolution led by his brother Fidel Castro.

The 39-year-old Guevara was captured and executed by a CIA-trained unit of the Bolivian army on October 9, 1967.

This year's ceremony was the first in the absence of Fidel Castro, who died last year, and an excerpt from one of his speeches honoring Guevara was played for the crowd.

The anniversary comes amid the dying gasps of other Latin American guerrilla movements such as the FARC in Colombia, which last year reached a peace deal with the government and recently disarmed.

Read the rest at Yahoo! News

Related: Who Was Che Guevara? A Look Back at His Life and Legacy (Al Jazeera)

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