Tourists are flocking to the Bolivian countryside where the charismatic revolutionary died. Anthony Faiola reports
See the very place where legendary guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara lived and died! Trudge through the mud-covered hillside he himself once climbed! Talk to the peasants who fed and clothed him and his hapless band of communists! And dont miss the mass grave where his bones, minus the hands that were chopped off 30 years ago and sent back to Fidel Castro, were just rediscovered!
Here in the wilds of central Bolivia, Che the Industry is flourishing. With the recent excavation of Guevaras long-lost remains, the trail where the charismatic communist icon spent his final days is on its way to becoming, well, CheWorld.
Scores of pilgrims arrive here each week. Locals peddle soft drinks and snacks to tourists at double normal prices, and if you need a Che backpack, pin or snapshot, have they got a deal for you. The pice de rsistance: plans are under way to stage a concert for an estimated 5 000 Che groupies on October 9 to mark the 30th anniversary of his execution.
How far has the mania gone? Just listen to the buzz: Che is a god now, said Michel Livet, chief organiser of a group of Bolivian companies now selling the Che Route to tour operators worldwide. Lets face it, he even looks a little bit like Jesus Christ.
The marketing of Guevaras trail comes at an extraordinary time in the evolution of his legacy. Indeed, Cuba may be pushing pina coladas to capitalist tourists and Russias new rich may be mobsters in jogging suits, but the ideal of global communism lives on in the image of Che that is clung to here.
A physician and scion of a prominent Argentine family, Guevara became a radical revolutionary and a catalyst in the overthrow of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. A thorn in Washingtons side for much of the 1960s, Che attempted single-handedly to launch the much feared communist domino effect in South America. His mission in Bolivia, however, lasted less than a year before he and his men were captured and executed by the army in 1967 with a little help from the CIA.
In the 1990s, Guevara has become a pop icon, a sort of political James Dean. Even as communism has faded, legions of fans across the world have romanticised Ches ideal of stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The young love him for the rebellion he conjures. The middle-aged love him for the nostalgia he brings of the radical lives they lived before the minivan, the job at Microsoft and the 2,2 kids.
Che is memories for me … We waved Guevaras banner in the university square [as students], and he meant equality and justice, said Paul Rouweler (46), a teacher at a high school near Amsterdam, as he looked down at the red earthen pit where Guevaras bones were excavated near an airstrip in Vallegrande.
And he was very sexy, too, added Helga Mayer (50), a pilgrim from Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Indeed, the signs of Che Chic are everywhere and decidedly capitalist. Several movies are in the works, including a big-budget project by Warner Brothers. Rock group Rage Against the Machine used Che on the cover of its latest CD. For the armchair terrorist, Che Swatch watches are now available. Three major Che biographies were published in the past year, and two more are planned for next year.
On the streets of Buenos Aires in his native Argentina, Che photo albums many containing borderline beefcake shots of the bearded guerrilla cover souvenir stands. Che T-shirts are for sale from London to San Francisco. And the high-tech Che fan can check out hundreds of Che-related sites on the Internet.
His left-wing comrades have rationalised the marketing frenzy into something positive. Personalities like Che cant be merchandised without … some of this ideology penetrating through to the consumers, said Loyola Guzman, a founding member of the Che Guevara Foundation in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, who was a member of his guerrilla band in the 1960s.
With all this capitalism whirling around the dead communist, Bolivians understandably smell gold. But they lost a big nugget last month when Ches newly discovered bones were shipped to Cuba after scientists identified them genetically. The Castro government is doing its part for Che tourism, building a mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba, where the bones will rest.
That left the Bolivians down but not out. The sexiest stuff including the death site is still here, on the trail where Che, disguised at first as a Uruguayan businessman, came in November 1966 with a tiny group and a plan to turn this forgotten patch of earth into an international training ground for communist guerrillas. The severely asthmatic Guevara combed these mountains, often by donkey because walking made breathing difficult. His diary, later sold to a publishing house by a Bolivian army officer, suggests that even toward the end, after he had lost several men to desertion and army bullets and was racked by depression, he never quite realised how desperate his situation had become.
There is no sense Che ever thought the fight was over, said Klaus Shutt, a Bolivian who, with the Cuban government, filmed a documentary on Che. Yes, a few of his men had died, but that was to be expected on a project as vast as he envisioned which was to turn South America totally communist.
It is a longing to reclaim Ches memory that brought, on a recent Saturday night, 31 European, Bolivian and US tourists to the sidewalk outside the offices of a tour company in Sucre, the judicial capital of Bolivia. Along with Santa Cruz, Sucre is one of two launching points into Che Country. The gathered Che groupies, even the university professors, were dressed in classic crunchy granola. Olive drab was the primary color, and at least three of the men were wearing berets, as Che did.
As they prepared to embark on the bus for the seven-hour night journey to the historic route, they began swapping Che stories. But not the ideological kind.
Where did you get that pin? a Dutchman asked a German teenager donning a fashionable Guevara badge. They were selling them in the caf, the German replied. Where were you?
The journey here traverses a rugged landscape of winding mountain roads, arid lowlands and raging streams where Guevara hiked with his men, attempting to coax the locals into providing food and drink.
One of the two main stops on the trail is La Higuera, where Che was killed after a brutal interrogation. He had already been wounded when he was captured about two miles from La Higuera and made to walk to the village despite his lame leg. La Higuera had 70 inhabitants in its heyday; today, only about 20 people live there, tending a few livestock and a general store that stocked up on soft drinks, bottled water, candy and Che postcards once the tourists started coming.
For about $4, the son of the villages unofficial mayor will give you a brief tour. The schoolhouse where Che was killed was torn down long ago, and a medical clinic now stands there, emblazoned with his unmistakable image. There are two other monuments to Che: a stone obelisk and bust in the village square; and a shrine with a cross, opposite the square, to which villagers bring candles and prayers.
In fact, Che is known in La Higuera as San Ernesto. When dry spells come, the locals carry pictures of Che, offering dances and prayers so the saint with the hairy face will send down rain. It works without fail, said Irma Rosado (60), who recalled seeing Che twice: once alive, drinking water from a nearby fountain, and later as a corpse on the table of the local school.
Bolivian army officers flew Ches body from La Higuera to the larger town of Vallegrande, about 480km southeast of La Paz, the capital. His body was displayed in the washroom of a hospital here in October 1967, and most of the town turned out to catch a glimpse of the armys trophy terrorist. Today, the room where his body was displayed has been turned into a sanctum, with poems on the walls and candles and incense burning constantly.
The soldiers cut off Ches hands for later confirmation of his identity through fingerprints, then buried him in an unmarked grave near Vallegrandes tiny airport. It was here that his bones, and those of many of his men, were dug up last month, after two years of searching, upon the insistence of Guevaras relatives and the Cuban government.
The villages primary tourist attraction, however, is Virginia Casrita, a 46-year-old midget who appears in Ches diary because her family once provided him with drinking water. She sits in Indian garb in the local park as rapt tourists listen to her accounts of Che. Experts doubt that Casrita ever actually met Guevara, but she tells a good story.
Ernesto is forgiving, Casrita had said then. He was killed here, yes. But he sees the ground needs water, and he gives. He sees the people need, and he gives … He is the only one we have to help us.
And as Casrita collected a much-needed $10 donation from rapt tourists, it became obvious that here in Bolivia, San Ernesto is most certainly still giving. The Washington Post