Recent Postings from the region Cuba at VocalNation.net http://vocalnation.net/user/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:02:04 +0100 http://www.vocalnation.net/images/promote/vn_feed_image.png http://www.vocalnation.net Feed provided by vocalnation.net. Click to visit. Subscribe to this feed by copying the URL from your browser's address bar into your feedreader of choice. You may choose to use a web-based feedreader such as Google Reader, NewsGator, Rojo, etc. or one of the many browser-plugin feed readers. http://vocalnation.net/posting/355/The+Che+Guevara+%26amp%3B+the+Cuban+Revolution/ military coup backed by the CIA tried to oust the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.  Many believe that this action ultimately convinced Che that the U.S. was an imperialist power, and planted the seeds for his later actions in Cuba.

In 1956, he and about 80 fighters lead by Fidel Castro traveled from Mexico on a small boat towards Cuba with aims of overthrowing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.  The bumbling invasion was a complete disaster.  Over half of their fighters were killed.  Over the next few years in, Castro & Che gained more support from the peasants within Cuba.  Che became a leader among the rebels, and acted as a doctor due to his time in medical school during his youth.  

Eventually the Batista government was toppled. Interestingly, a lot of the recruits didn't even realize that they were fighting a communist revolution, and probably would have abandoned the fight if they did.  Some feel that Castro didn't fully commit to communism until after he developed ties with the Soviet Union.  Nonetheless, after the revolution, lands and businesses began to be seized, including billions of dollars in U.S. interests.  

In 1959 after the Cuban revolution, Che traveled back to the mainland with an aim of creating a socialist revolution throughout all of Latin America.  His first attempts in Panama and the Dominican Republic failed.  Che was ultimately killed in Bolivia, by Bolivian Special Forces led by CIA operative Félix Rodríguez.

Wikipedia entry on Che Guevera
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