Picture : Collected
- Execution and Identification: After his capture by the Bolivian army with CIA assistance, Che Guevara was executed on October 9, 1967. To definitively confirm his identity and provide proof of death, the Bolivian authorities decided to sever his hands for fingerprint analysis.
- The Perpetrator: Roberto Quintanilla, then head of the interior ministry’s intelligence, was the officer responsible for ordering the hands to be cut off and preserved in formaldehyde.
- The Hands’ Journey: The severed hands were sent to Argentina for fingerprint verification and eventually found their way to Cuba, where they were kept in the Museum of the Revolution.
- Discovery of Remains: For 30 years, the location of Guevara’s body was a secret. In 1997, his skeleton was found in a mass grave, identified by the fact that it was missing its hands. The remains were then repatriated to Cuba and interred with full honors.
- Assassination of Quintanilla: In 1971, Quintanilla, who had been promoted and appointed as consul-general in Hamburg, West Germany, was assassinated in his office by Monika Ertl, a member of the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (ELN), in revenge for Guevara’s death and the death of an ELN leader.
Roberto Quintanilla from Wikipedia
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