Skip to main content
After Guevara: the struggle for progress in Latin America
55 years after Che’s assassination, the continent he sought to liberate has overcome the dark decades of US-backed brutality and terror to once again embrace socialism, writes JOHN WIGHT
In the immediate decades after the Cuban Revolution failed to catalyse a region-wide revolutionary wave, Latin America existed under the iron heel of far-right military dictatorships which prioritised the interests of Washington over the interests of their own people.

“He entered into death asking neither permission nor forgiveness: he led his men forth to face the bullets of the surrounding army in the dusty ravine of Yuro.”

SO WRITES that genius of the written word, Eduardo Galeano, of the last gun battle fought by Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967; the culmination of his ill-fated attempt to inspire Bolivia’s poverty-stricken, oppressed peasantry to rise up against the country’s then-dictator Rene Barrientos, an agent of the CIA in all but name, in what Guevara and his followers intended to be a rerun of the Cuban revolution eight years previously.

If one man’s legacy looms large over the modern history of Latin America it’s the legacy of Guevara, whose indomitable and unrelenting resistance to US imperialism and its agents continues to inspire in a region long considered in Washington to be US real estate.

In many respects Guevara was Latin America’s Soleimani and Soleimani the Middle East’s Guevara.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Chris Eubank Jr (left) and Conor Benn face-off during a press conference at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London. Picture date: Thursday April 24, 2025
Men's boxing / 25 April 2025
25 April 2025

JOHN WIGHT previews the much-anticipated bout between Benn and Eubank Jnr where — unlike the fights between their fathers — spectacle has reigned over substance

Dave
Men’s boxing / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
JOHN WIGHT takes us on a journey back to a decade defined by union power, pop stars, and gritty football icons - no boxer embodied the heart and soul of 1970s Britain quite like Dave Boy Green
George Foreman yells, October 15, 1974, in N'Sele, Kinshasa,
Men’s Boxing / 28 March 2025
28 March 2025
JOHN WIGHT pays tribute to the late great George Foreman who defied the odds throughout his life and career to become a household name and legend of the sport
John H. Stracey (right) who is to defend his European welter
Men’s boxing / 14 March 2025
14 March 2025
JOHN WIGHT writes about the fascinating folklore surrounding the place which has been home to some of the most ferocious bareknuckle and unlicensed fighters throughout history
Similar stories
MORE THAN MEETS THE
EYE: While USAid does
provide humanitari
Features / 16 February 2025
16 February 2025
With its track record of leveraging cultural power for US gain and barely concealed promotion of coup attempts, the US Agency for International Development will not be mourned among the US’s southern neighbours, write JOHN PERRY and ROGER D HARRIS
A supporter of Brazilian President Lula da Silva of the Work
Features / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
Long having been considered the ‘US’s backyard,’ Latin America is the crucible of anti-imperialist struggle – yet with the rise of China as an economic and ideological counterweight to Washington, we see a new phase of that struggle emerge, writes BEN CHACKO 
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, centre, and Raul Castro,
Features / 9 February 2025
9 February 2025
BEN CHACKO appreciates the largest Adelante! conference yet, and how much there was to learn about decolonisation and defiance across Latin America and beyond
‘A DUTY TO FORGE THE FUTURE OURSELVES’: Aleida Guevara
Features / 3 February 2025
3 February 2025
Cuba Solidarity Campaign director ROB MILLER invites readers to book tickets for a speaking tour not to be missed in the struggle for liberation around the globe