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When the haggard and broken figure was laid out on the slab and displayed to the world it was not just Che Guevara that had died. The dream of socialist revolution in South America was over.His image and name would continue to inspire millions but on the continent he wanted to transform he was a political failure, a defeated guerrilla on the wrong side of history.Bolivia's peasants spurned Che's rebellion, leaving the Bolivian army and the CIA to capture him on October 8 1967, kill him the following day, and rid South America of Cuba's revolutionary spirit. The soldiers reportedly drew straws to determine who would have the honour of shooting Che."And so he is dead," wrote the Guardian's Richard Gott, one of the few journalists at the scene that day. "As they pumped preservative into his half-naked, dirty body and as the crowd shouted to be allowed to see, it was difficult to recall that this man had once been one of the great figures of Latin America."It was difficult to feel his ideas would die with him, Gott added. He was right. Forty years later the anniversary of the death is looming and the scene is transformed: the Cubans are back, socialism is back, and Che is officially a hero.An elaborate ceremony in Vallegrande, the town where his corpse was displayed, will be just one of many government-backed rallies across the Andes and the Caribbean."Che is greater and more present than ever," said Oswaldo "Chato" Peredo, a Bolivian former guerrilla whose brother, Roberto, was executed alongside the communist icon.Portraits of the pair hang in Vallegrande's main square. Locals speak with reverence of Che's "Christ-like" corpse. They hold masses for the doctor-turned-guerrilla and pray at Che altars in their homes.The Nuestro Señor de Malta hospital, in whose laundry room the body was displayed, is staffed with 25 Cuban medics. They do not double up as guerrillas but they do carry a revolutionary torch. "Che lives on in our fight for Latin American unity," said one, Ledicel Gamez.The laundry room walls are covered in the scrawl and engravings of so called Che pilgrims. "We want to leave it like this because it is an expression of the people," said Chato.Che's rehabilitation has been borne on the region's "pink tide" of leftwing governments, especially in Bolivia and Venezuela, where efforts are under way to promote socialism, deepen ties with Havana and roll back Washington's influence.President Hugo Chávez echoes Che's desire to wean people off capitalism by moulding a "new socialist man". The Argentine-born rebel's writings have been widely distributed in Venezuela and a government-run work and training scheme was recently named after him....
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