MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castro, Chavez visit “Che's” home

Seemingly unconcerned about an Argentine request to allow a Cuban doctor out of the island to visit her children in Argentina, Cuban leader Fidel Castro yesterday spent his third day in Cordoba province by taking Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez on an emotional pilgrimage to the boyhood home of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

"Fidel! Fidel!" and "Hugo! Hugo!" the crowd of about 2,000 chanted as Castro, wearing his trademark green military fatigues, climbed out of his limousine in the Cordoba town of Alta Gracia where the Argentine-born Cuban hero Guevara grew up. Chavez was right by Castro's side as they entered the house amid a crush of security agents who kept bystanders back.

Castro, whose first of several visits to Argentina was in 1959 after the Cuban revolution and returned this week to attend a summit that inducted Venezuela into the Mercosur trade bloc, had never before visited the home of the guerrilla who is revered in Cuba.

During the Mercosur summit President Néstor Kirchner handed Castro a letter requesting him to allow Cuban doctor Hilda Molina to visit Argentina. Molina's son lives in Argentina with his children, whom Molina has never met.

Before going to Alta Gracia, Castro met with Argentine Deputy Miguel Bonasso, a friend of his who is also a staunch supporter of Kirchner. Asked by a journalist if he and Castro spoke about Molina's case, Bonasso replied: "No, we only spoke about important matters, mostly bilateral affairs." Castro invited Bonasso to go with him to Guevara's home.

Guevara spent most of his childhood in the central Argentine province, where his family hoped a mild climate would ease his severe asthma. Guevara's family later moved to Buenos Aires, where he enrolled in medical school before launching the famous motorcycle trip around South America that inspired him to give up a medical career for leftist revolution.

He was killed in 1967 while directing a guerrilla movement in Bolivia. His remains were taken three decades later to Cuba, where they are entombed under a massive monument.

Yesterday, black-uniformed police with guard dogs kept back the crowd for hours as bystanders jammed the space outside the green-painted, brick-and-tile middle class home that Guevara once lived in now a museum.

The house yesterday bore the famous iconic photograph taken in 1960 that shows the legendary "Che" wearing his classic beret at a jaunty angle. A bronze statue out front also depicted Guevara as a young boy at a time when his family brought him here to ease his asthma.

The home is typical of many on narrow streets of Alta Gracia, a community located 50 kilometres west of the city of Cordoba where eight Latin American leaders met for the Mercosur summit of Thursday and Friday.

On their arrival Castro and Chavez entered the house to view such "Che" items as a vintage motorbike like that used by Guevara for his cross-South American trip.

Guevara was seven years old when he came to Alta Gracia. The house now is owned by the Alta Gracia city government. Guevara lived in the house for two stretches, first from 1935-1937 and then again from 1939-43.

Three old friends of Guevara's, their hair grey, entered the house just ahead of the visit by Castro and Chavez.

Guevara "who would have been 78 this year" launched an armed revolt in 1966 to bring communism to Bolivia after helping lead the 1959 Cuban Revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and thrust Castro into power. He waged a guerrilla insurgency war for 13 months in Bolivia but was captured and executed by the Bolivian army. He was 39 when he died. Buenos Aires Herald