The untold story of how the American government assassinated the world’s most famous revolutionary

In compelling detail, two leading US civil rights attorneys recount the extraordinary life and deliberate killing of the world’s most storied revolutionary: Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith survey the extraordinary trajectory of Che’s career from an early politicization recounted in The Motorcycle Diaries, through meetings with his compañero Fidel Castro in Mexico, his vital role in the Cuban revolution, and his expeditions abroad to Africa and Latin America. But their focus is on Che’s final days in Bolivia where, after months of struggle to spread the revolution that had begun in Havana, Che was wounded, captured, and executed. Bound and helpless, Che’s last words to his killer, a soldier in the Bolivian Army, were: “Remember, you are killing a man.”

Referencing internal US government documentation, much of it never before published, Ratner and Smith use their forensic skills as attorneys to analyze the evidence and present an irrefutable case that the CIA not only knew of and approved the execution, but was instrumental in making it happen. Cables from the agency disavowing any US role in the murder were merely attempts to provide plausible deniability for the Johnson administration.

The spirit of Che Guevara, as an icon and an inspiration, is as vibrant today as it ever was. Protestors around the world continue to use his image. For anyone drawn to his remarkable life and its violent, unlawful end, How the CIA Killed Che will engage, anger, and educate.

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Michael Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and the author of several books including "The Pinochet Papers" and "Guantanamo: What the World Should Know." He lives in New York City.
Michael Steven Smith is an attorney and a board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is the author of "Notebook of a Sixties Lawyer." He lives in New York City.