Miami HeraldMiami Herald

The soldier who executed Che in 1967, earning admiration of Cuban exiles, died this month. That is a big news for Miami's historic Cuban exile community.

They consider Mario Terán Salazar, 80, who was following orders from his government when he fatally shot Guevara 55 years ago, a hero.

Without apology, exiles despise Guevara for his role in Cuba's 1959 revolution, which has landed his image on t-shirts, advertising, and posters. They don't like it that it is a glorifying Guevara.

They have a good reason to dislike him. After the revolution, more than 500 Cubans were executed. There is a website about the forgotten victims of Che Guevara.

Seven decades after his death, any public honor of him is met with outrage. And it should be.

Felix Rodriguez is a former Bay of Pigs veteran and CIA operative. He was there on the day of the execution.

Rodriguez was one of the last people to speak to the Argentine rebel leader. Rodriguez has written a book about his experience that day.

Rodriguez told the Editorial Board that he wanted to explain to Cubans the hatred of Guevara that they had when he was captured.

Rodriguez said his CIA case manager approached him. He was assigned to work with a group of other Cuban exiles. The CIA had information that Che Guevara had left the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he had tried to create a Marxist uprising, and was now in the countryside of the country.

Rodriguez said he was asked if he was interested in going to help capture Che.

Rodriguez was supposed to be embedded with the soldiers tracking Guevara. Six months after the mission began, the soldiers encountered the rebels. Guevara was wounded in the firefight and captured. Rodriguez said that the problem became what to do with him. Do we take him prisoner or kill him?

‘Kill Guevara’

Rodriguez was told to detain Guevara in a school in the countryside until the highest levels of the government decided his fate. Rodriguez told the Board that he witnessed the last few minutes of a man. He remembered how this man had killed so many Cubans.

Rodriguez, the highest ranking officer at the scene, said he received orders to kill Guevara.

He told them not to kill him and that he was worth more to them than dead.

Rodriguez said he told him that he would be executed.

Rodriguez says those words are up for interpretation. He knows that other Cubans were told to kill themselves.

Rodriguez remembers that he was told to tell Fidel that the revolution would continue and that he should marry him.

Rodriguez did not witness the execution. Terán kept a secret that he was the soldier who fired the fatal shot at the school. He said that it was the worst day of his life.

Glorifying “Che”

Rodriguez has never understood the meaning of the word "martyr". Rodriguez keeps a story in his mind to remind him of Guevara's brutality.

In the early days of the revolution, a Cuban mother showed up at the central holding jail for political prisoners, called La Caba.

She came to ask for mercy on her son, who was arrested for protesting against the rebels.

My son is only 15 years old and he doesn't know what he is doing. He was held for two weeks. I haven't been able to sleep since he was arrested.

Rodriguez said that Guevara asked for the teen to be brought to him. The mother thought she had convinced the leader.

Your mother says she hasn't been able to sleep for two weeks because of you!

Rodriguez said that the memory of Guevara was for Cubans.

The editorial board member for the Miami Herald is LuisaYanez.

Yanez
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