La Paz: The former Bolivian soldier who has claimed to have killed the Marxist revolutionary hero Ernesto Che Guevara died on Thursday at the age of 80. Mario Teran Salazar shot dead Argentine-born Guevara on October 9, 1967 in the eastern Santa Cruz province of Bolivia during the peak time of the Cold War.
‘He died. He was ill and nothing could be done’, Gary Prado, a former Bolivian soldier who helped capture Guevara in the jungle region 54 years ago was quoted by AFP. ‘The family and comrades from the armed forces told me because he was being treated in the military hospital in the eastern city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra’, he added.
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Guevara was captured on October 8, 1967 by the Bolivian army with help from two Cuban-American CIA agents, while he was leading a small band of guerrillas fighting against the army despite suffering from hunger and disease. An injured Guevara was brought to an abandoned school in the village of La Higuera where he spent the night. The next day the 39-year-old was riddled with bullets by Teran, with the approval of then-president Rene Barrientos (1964-69), a fervent anti-communist.
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