The Bolivian Diary

The last diary of revolutionary Che Guevara with entries up until two days before his murder. This new edition of Che Guevara's diary of the last year of his life describes Che's efforts to launch a guerrilla insurrection against the military government of Bolivia. It was found in his backpack when he was captured by the Bolivian Army in October 1967.This edition includes Fidel Castro's "A Necessary Introduction," exposing the lies of an earlier, pre-emptive edition prepared by the C.I.A. to discredit Che and the Bolivian expedition, as well as the Cuban Revolution itself. The Bolivian Diary reveals an older, more time-tested, and health-compromised Che than either the exuberant The Motorcycle Diaries or the mature and implacable Congo Diary. There is rich irony here as he recounts the daily challenges faced by his small guerrilla band, the pronouncements of the military government, and the actions of the large military force attacking them. The last entry describes the day before Che's capture, two days before his murder.

In December 1956 Guevara was part of the expedition that landed in Cuba aboard the yacht Granma to begin the guerrilla struggle. Originally the troop doctor, Guevara became a commander of the Rebel Army.

Director Steven Soderberg based his epic biopic on two classic diaries written by Che Guevara: Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Bolivian Diary. Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara includes a section from each of these books, showing the young Argentine's evolution, in his own words, from the wide-eyed medical student of the Motorcycle Diaries era to the revolutionary hero the world knows as Che.

With an introduction by Fidel Castro Che Guevara's famous last diary, found in his backpack after he was captured by the Bolivian Army in 1967, and which played a pivotal role in catapulting him to iconic status after his death.

A unique account of the last doomed eleven months of the most courageous and dedicated revolutionary of the 20th century. First published in Cuba in 1968 in a free edition of 250,000 copies, it has since become a classic. In November 1966 Che Guevara, hero of the Cuban Revolution, arrives in Bolivia to lead a guerrilla detachment fighting that country's military dictatorship. At the beginning of the diary the war games of the guerrillas seem no more real than those of Boy Scouts at play. But then real deaths begin, in flooded rivers or in ambush. The guerrilla fighters win their first battles and outwit the vastly superior army forces sent against them; but, in the end, Che Guevara and his dwindling group are surrounded and crushed. In its terse and simple prose, the Bolivian Diary gives a unique account of the guerrilla's lonely fight against armies, mountains, jungles, hunger, disease and death. And the reader's knowledge of Guevara's fate makes the book even more moving a record of the guerrillas' day-to-day suffering and bravery.

Covers the period November 7th, 1966 to October 7th, 1967.