La Higuera is a small village in Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

 located in the Province

Provinces of Bolivia

A province is the second largest administrative division in Bolivia, after a department. Each department is divided into provinces. There are 112 provinces in total....

 of Vallegrande

Vallegrande Province

Vallegrande is a province in the Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia.-Subdivision:The province is divided into 5 municipios :-See also:*La Higuera...

, in the Department

Departments of Bolivia

Bolivia is divided into nine departments . Each of the departments is subdivided into provinces , which are further subdivided into municipalities ....

 of Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Department

Santa Cruz, with an area of 370,621 km², is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia. In the 2001 census, it reported a population of 2,029,471. The capital is the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The state is one of the wealthiest states in Bolivia with huge reserves of...

. It is situated in the La Higuera Canton (civil parish) belonging to the Pucará municipality.

Geography

The village is situated some 150 km (bee-line) southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. La Higuera lies at an elevation of 1950 m. Its population (according to the 2001 census) is 119, mainly indigenous Guarani people.

History

see also: Capture and execution of Che Guevara

On October 8, 1967, the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 was captured by the CIA-assisted Bolivian Army

Bolivian Army

The Bolivian Army or Ejército Boliviano is the land forces component of the Military of Bolivia, the Bolivian Army has around 31,500 men.- Combat units directly under the Army general command :...

 in the nearby ravine Quebrada del Churo, ending his campaign to create a continental revolution in South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. Che Guevara was held in the schoolhouse, where he was killed the next day. The body was then brought to Vallegrande

Vallegrande

Vallegrande is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town...

, where it was placed on display and afterwards secretly buried under an airstrip.

Che tourism

A monument to "El Che" and a memorial in the former schoolhouse are the major tourist attraction for this area. La Higuera is a stop on the "Ruta del Che" (Che Guevara Trail) which was inaugurated in 2004.

External links

• Che Guevara Legacy Lives on in Bolivia BBC News, August 24, 2004
• Bolivian Town Recalls Che Assassination Prensa Latina, October 8, 2008
• Che Sat Here: The Making (and Marketing) of a Martyr by Alex Ayala Ugarte, Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2009 Issue
• Che Guevara's 81st birthday Marked in Bolivia Ahora, June 15, 2009