[NYTr] Che's Assassination Part of Dictators' Operation Condor

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[There was also a Cuban report about this newly discovered document,
which has been donated to the Cuban archives, but the translation
wasn't too understandable. -NY Transfer]


AFP via Sydney Morning Herald - Oct 9, 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/south-american-dictators-ganged-up-in-hunt-for-che/2007/10/08/1191695822666.html

[Nice Reuters photo of the Memorial to Che at La Higuera, Bolivia 
where Che was captured and assassinated accompanies this story, which
completely omits the role of the CIA in Operation Condor. -NYTr]

South American dictators [and CIA] ganged up in hunt for Che

VALLEGRANDE, Bolivia: South American dictators of the 1960s
co-ordinated efforts in their attempt to track down the Marxist
guerilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara, killed by Bolivian forces in 1967,
according to a previously secret document uncovered by a researcher.

The co-operation predates Operation Condor, the secret plan hatched by
right-wing military governments in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay in the 1970s to eliminate their political
opponents.

The confidential report, dated October 3, 1966, from the head of
Paraguay's secret service, informs his Brazilian counterpart of
Guevara's arrival in South America.

"It is the first time that we find the name of Che Guevara linked to
the dictatorships before the elaboration of Operation Condor," said
Martin Almada, a Paraguayan researcher who in 1992 uncovered documents
showing the existence of Operation Condor.

"Che Guevara left Corumba [a Brazilian town on the border with Bolivia]
under the false name of Oscar Ferreira," read the document. Guevara had
a beard and was sailing aboard the Victoria dos Palmares, which was
likely to arrive at dawn. The document warned: "He is in charge of a
mission."

Mr Almada, 70, helped uncover the existence of Operation Condor from
five tonnes of paperwork that Paraguay's secret service abandoned in
1989 after the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown. He
said he only recently discovered the Guevara document "because I have
many documents and have not finished examining them all".

Guevara, the iconic Argentine-born doctor who became a guerilla leader
and fought in the Cuban revolution, led a small band of rebels in
Bolivia for 11 months trying to spread revolution. The Bolivian army
and two CIA agents captured him in a village and shot him on October 9,
1967. He was 39.

Agence France-Presse

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