27. Che Guevara’s Road to Revolution
Che Guevara immersed himself in Marxism, and eventually decided to abandon his study of medicine. As he saw it, only revolution could help the downtrodden masses. In 1953, he moved to Guatemala, where the progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz was in the midst of land reform and redistribution efforts. However, Arbenz’s policies – especially the part that involved redistribution of lands that belonged to the American United Fruits Company – faced fierce opposition. Eventually, his government was overthrown in a 1954 CIA-backed coup. That deepened Guevara’s radicalism, and added anti-imperialism to his agenda. It also laid the foundations for a theory he later proselytized, about the need for worldwide revolution in order to achieve socialism.
Guevara eventually ended up in Mexico, then a common refuge for leftists. There, he met and befriended a young Cuban lawyer and revolutionary, Fidel Castro, who wanted to overthrow the corrupt Batista regime in his home island. Guevara accompanied Castro and a small force to Cuba in 1956, to carry out an ambitious plan to spark a revolution. He became one of Castro’s chief advisors, commanded revolutionary forces in guerrilla warfare, and led them to final victory and seizure of the island in 1959.