By IANS
Friday October 5, 03:58 PM
Havana, Oct 5 (IANS) Cuba has confirmed that the body found at a grave
in Bolivia's Vallegrande town was that of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, thus
ending a controversy over the authenticity of the body of the socialist
revolutionary who was slain by Bolivian army in 1967.
Jorge Gonzalez Perez, who led the team that recovered Che's body, said
Thursday that the evidence found at the burial site was sufficient to
prove that the remains were those of Guevara, Spanish news agency EFE
said Friday quoting official Juventud Rebelde newspaper.
Cuba, nevertheless, conducted DNA tests on the body to confirm the
findings, Perez was quoted as saying.
Guevara, born June 14, 1928, met Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1956 and
joined the armed uprising in the Sierra Maestra mountains that
eventually led to the overthrow of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
During the first few years of the revolution, Che, who was granted Cuban
citizenship, was named head of the country's central bank and, later, of
the industry ministry.
His plans to spread socialist revolution throughout Latin America took
him in 1966 to Bolivia, where he was captured by the Bolivian army on
Oct 8, 1967, taken to a school in the town of La Higuera and was
executed the following day.
Che's body was mutilated and buried at a site that remained secret until
retired Bolivian General Mario Vargas Salinas revealed in November 1995
that the remains had been buried in a mass grave in Vallegrande.
In 1997, to mark the 30th anniversary of his death, the Cuban government
inaugurated a memorial to Che and his comrades in Santa Clara, some 270
km east of Havana.
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