Gary Prado, the officer who commanded the military company that captured Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the Bolivian countryside on October 9, 1967, is now a retired general who is active in politics and public affairs, and who once served as ambassador to Mexico.  He lives in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the richest and most independent of the Bolivian provinces, where he ran unsuccessfully for the position of delegate to the Constituent Assembly convened by President Evo Morales.
In an exclusive interview published on August 18 in the Argentine daily Pagina 12, he emphatically reiterated, once again, that he was not responsible for Che’s death and that after the capture he had transferred Che, alive, to his superior officers.  He also was generous with a wealth of reflections and reminiscences, painting his own picture of today’s Bolivia, where for the first time the reins of power are held by a president who is indigenous and who shows every intention of putting into practice the very same ideas for which Che was killed.

“Che blundered because he failed to follow what he himself had written.”  With these words Prado explained what the mistakes were that took the hero of the Cuban revolution to his death.  “In his book on guerilla warfare,” the retired general noted, “he wrote that in a country where they maintain the forms of democracy, at least in appearance, it is impossible to create a revolution.  Here in Bolivia we had an elected democratic government; a popular head of government, Barrientos; a functioning parliament; and freedom of the press.  And Che came to make a revolution.  How do you explain it?  He misjudged when he chose Bolivia, that was his first mistake.  The second blunder he made was to divide his forces.  Lack of provisions led to that.  At a certain point the guerillas divided into two groups, leaving one to Regis Debray, and the two bands never got back together.  That was a childish mistake.  They wandered around in the woods, not making contact, until they were decimated.  The third mistake he made was [forgetting] that, when it becomes clear that things are not succeeding, why persist?  If you read Che’s diary and talk to Benigno, Che’s partner in the Bolivian campaign, those last days were totally surreal.  They knew the army was closing in.  They could have seen that it was time to break up  and say farewell—‘Another day, Comrades’—abandon their weapons, change into civilian clothes, shave their beards, and escape as best they could.  But no.  They continued marching.”  Prado is among those who do not consider the Argentine revolutionary to be a hero, a myth to be perpetuated.  He had spent some fifteen hours with Che in the village of La Higuera before handing him over to the division commander, and he recalled Che as “a broken man, querulous over his future.”   Prado has lived his life being blamed for something he denies guilt for, but that has followed him anyway.  When he was ambassador to Mexico, the Mexican author Alberto Hijar threw a glass of wine in his face with the words, “To Che’s health, assassin.”

Speaking of Morales, Prado limits his criticism.  Prado believes that the election of Morales is a positive thing for Bolivia, because it “represents a change in the people’s mentality and also provides for the consolidation of a democratic process begun more than 50 years ago.”  More precisely, “The mistake he cannot afford to make is to depart from the democratic process.  He has to play by the rules.  Up to this point he has abided by some and has very adroitly fudged on others.  But sooner or later it comes back to bite one.  It’s impossible to govern by decree when laws exist.  You can’t say you’re going to change the Constitution just to make things go your way.  Very well, so the Constitution gets rewritten.  But, what if the changes don’t go your way?  What happens then?  You get enraged?  The other thing we want to look at is his buddies, because a lot of people don’t like them.  [Clearly a reference to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.  PeaceReporter]  Here in Latin America we are excessively nationalistic.  So our Evo, in order to appear appropriately nationalistic, will have to go out of his way not to appear to be taking orders from foreigners.”

Parallels with Che.  However, when the Pagina 12 interviewer pointed out the similarities between Che’s ideology and what Morales is trying to do, Prado reacted brusquely: “Do not tell me that common people everywhere did not have the same aspirations for work, education and health care long before Che Guevara appeared on the scene.  Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ proclaimed the same thing.  Those are not Che’s ideas!  For a long time the media have been engaged in the huge project of creating the myth of Che.  Do me a favor!  These are not Che’s ideas.  They are the natural aspirations of all human beings.”