logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2017
51m 21s

The Death of Che Guevara

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In October 1967 the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured and killed in Bolivia - we hear from the CIA operative who was one of the last people to speak to him. Plus, the plan to rescue Italy's art from the Nazis; remembering a hero of Catalan nationalism; the policeman and friend who testified against OJ Simpson, and Madonna - the early years.

(Photo: Felix Rodriguez (left) with the captured Che Guevara, shortly before his execution on 9 October 1967. Courtesy of Felix Rodriguez)

Up next
Aug 1
The first Comic Con and making Oasis’ Wonderwall
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a comic book fan and his friends began the very first comic convention in New York in 1964. Our guest is comic book expert Dr Barbara Postema, from the University Gr ... Show More
59m 36s
Jul 25
Solar-powered flight and the Crazy Horse Memorial
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.This week, we hear about the first solar-powered flight around the world, and discuss other moments in the history of solar power with Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, in th ... Show More
1 h
Jul 18
The Spanish Civil War and the Birkin bag
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This week, we mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. Our guest is historian Professor Sir Paul Preston, who explains how the conflict transformed Spain and pave ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
Former CIA officer Felix Rodriguez has led a fascinating life. He was involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and was one of the last men to speak to Che Guevara before his execution.
Che Guevara was executed in 1967 in a remote Bolivian village. One of the last people to speak to him alive was CIA officer Felix Rodriguez. Here’s his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 
51m 56s
Mar 2021
Series 5: Che Guevara
Comrades Ria Lina, Esther Manito and Michael Odewale dissect the Argentine revolutionary. 
47m 8s
Mar 2024
Che In The Sky With Jacket
The famous 'Che' poster, entitled Guerrillero Heroico, taken by Alberto Korda at a mass funeral in Havana on 5th March, 1960. It went on to become one of the most reproduced photographs of all time. Korda snapped only two shots of Che Guevara that day - one portrait, one landscap ... Show More
11m 32s
Aug 2024
174. The Cuban Revolution
It’s 1959 and the swaggering Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, has just overthrown the unpopular American backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara, the Marxist physician whose face would become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance, is at his side. But how di ... Show More
56m 59s
May 2025
[BEST OF] In Defense of Che Guevara: Analyzing his Life and Answering his Critics
ORIGINALLY RELEASED Nov 13, 2017 Dr. Thoreau Redcrow is an American academic with a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis with a concentration in Global Conflict. Thoreau is a researcher who specializes in studying armed guerrilla movements, and who has over a decade of experience studying ... Show More
1h 34m
Dec 2020
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chairman Mao and the revolt he led within his own party from 1966, setting communists against each other, to renew the revolution that he feared had become too bourgeois and to remove his enemies and rivals. Universities closed and the students for ... Show More
48m 9s
Dec 2020
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chairman Mao and the revolt he led within his own party from 1966, setting communists against each other, to renew the revolution that he feared had become too bourgeois and to remove his enemies and rivals. Universities closed and the students for ... Show More
48m 9s