The general responsible for the arrest of the legendary revolutionary hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the 1960s has died in Bolivia. Gary Prado Salmon died on Saturday at the age of 84 surrounded by family, his son announced on Facebook.
The officer commanded the patrol that captured Guevara in southwestern Bolivia on October 8, 1967. The right-wing military government’s operation had been backed by US intelligence. A day later, the 39-year-old revolutionary was shot dead by a non-commissioned officer.
Guevara planned uprising in Bolivia
Born in Argentina, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America as a young man before joining the Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro. After the triumph of the 1959 revolution in Cuba, Guevara took Cuban citizenship. In 1965 Guevara resigned from all his offices in Cuba; later he rallied supporters for a communist uprising against the military government in Bolivia.
The Bolivian Congress had granted Prado Salmon national hero status for his role in Guevara’s arrest. Prado Salmon has been paralyzed since being hit in the back by a bullet in an accident in 1981.
