Today in Manhunting History -- October 8, 1967: The Capture of Che Guevara*

At 0630, October 8, 1967, Second Lieutenant Carlos Perez of the U.S. Special Forces-trained Company A, 2^nd Bolivian Ranger Battalion reported up his chain that Pedro Pena, a local peasant, had watched 17 men skirt his farm to enter El Churo Canyon the previous evening.  2LT Perez radioed Captain Gary Prado Solomon, commander of Company B which had been pursuing a group of guerrillas led by Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara since September 26, who directed him to move two A Company platoons to the north end of El Churo Canyon while Prado moved with one rifle platoon, two 60mm mortars, and one machine gun on the high ground overlooking the south end of the small ravine.  The Rangers, with a total strength of 200 men, immediately began to close off the ends of the canyon.

El Churo Canyon, about 300 meters long, ran downhill northeast to southwest.  At the southern end it merged with La Tusca Canyon and fed into San Antonio Canyon.  The steep ravine, as much as 200 meters deep, was thickly vegetated, particularly along the canyon floor, becoming sparser near the top.  CPT Prado deployed a platoon up to the north end of La Tusca, and established his command post and a blocking position with his two mortars and machine gun at the southern confluence of the two canyons.  By 1230, Prado’s forces were in position and began to search the canyons.

Almost immediately there was contact at the north end of El Churo.  2LT Perez’ men came under fire when they entered the north end of El Churo, and two Rangers were killed in the initial volley.  The movement halted as the Rangers tried to maneuver to take the insurgents under fire.  They had cut off the guerrilla’s planned movement to the high ground from the north end of the canyon, but could not penetrate down the narrow ravine.  Prado radioed Sergeant Huanca in La Tusca and told him to rapidly clear that canyon and get to the two ravines’ confluence.  Before the Rangers arrived, Che tried to break out.

CPT Prado has positioned his crew-served weapons to overwatch the area where El Chura and La Tusca canyons converged.  When the guerrillas emerged to make a break for it, the Rangers opened up on them with the mortars and machine gun.  The guerrillas took casualties and fell back into El Churo. Che was wounded in the right calf and his carbine was destroyed. (Other accounts describe Che as "riddled with bullets" having been hit in the same leg multiple times and possibly through the right forearm).  A second break out attempt was repulsed as well. 

Since the tight confines of the canyon and close proximity of friendly forces precluded the use of close air support, Sergeant Huanca’s platoon was ordered into El Churo from the south in order to drive the guerrillas against the two platoons of A Company atop the ravine.  Huanca attacked Che’s main body with hand grenades, killing two insurgents.  This forced the guerrillas to fall back and allowed the Rangers to enter the canyon. 

Che had no other choice but to try to escape up and out of the canyon. With another comrade he began climbing, but two Rangers manning an observation post near Prado’s CP observed their movement.  They held their fire until the guerrillas climbed up the ravine, and then when they were ten feet away, stood up and took them prisoner, less than 15 meters from the Ranger command post.  When Prado asked them to identify themselves, the Argentine doctor replied, “I am Che Guevara.”

Che Guevara as a prisoner of the U.S.-trained 2nd Ranger Battalion in Bolivia.

* Che Guevara was one of two cases (Pablo Escobar being the other) I researched but was not able to include as full chapters in Wanted Dead or Alive due to space restrictions. This account is largely drawn from Kenneth Finlayson, "The 2nd Ranger Battalion and the Capture of Che Guevara," in Veritas: Journal of Army Special Operations History, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2008.