October 9 - Far from silencing commentaries on Ché's death, the publication of the results of the autopsy, conducted by the Argentinean doctors Moisés Abraham Baptista and José Martínez Casso, has caused an outburst of technical and journalistic opinions which clearly prove that a man with nine bullet wounds, several of them close to vital organs, as established in said autopsy's protocol, could have hardly endured the amount of hours that military authorities are bent on establishing, from his capture in the early evening of October 8 until his death in the morning of the 9th.
October 9 - Che, Willi and Chino are finished off in the little schoolhouse at La Higuera. Pacho had expired hours before without medical attention.
October 9 - "At one in the afternoon I stepped out of the little schoolhouse, to where Sergeant Mario Terán and Lieutenant Pérez were waiting and apparently drunk. I told them not to shoot at the face but from the neck down. Ten minutes later I heard the shots."
Félix Rodríguez (Max Gómez), C.I.A. - 'Shadow Warrior' P. 201
October 9 - "Ché would be executed that same morning, at the place where he was being kept prisoner.
"He was sitting on the floor, leaning his shoulder against the wall. He was weak and gasping for breath, and because the light was so poor, it took him a while to make out two persons entering the room.
"Captain Prado came up behind Guevara and fired a burst from his machine-gun at his neck, from above. Four bullets struck him. Colonel Selich drew near and shot a single bullet from his 9-mm pistol. It penetrated Ché's heart and one of his lungs. It was the coup the grâce. He was dead.
"When they had him removed from the scene of the crime, the two executioners were not able to conceal a shudder of terror: Ché's eyes were very open and quite peaceful . . ." pp. 219-220.
October - "A few domestic and foreign journalists still remained in the city, eagerly probing into the deepest details of the events surrounding Ché.
"When one of them, Franco Pierini, correspondent for an Italian magazine, asked me if I had executed Ché, I answered in outrage <<that I was a soldier, not an executioner>> . . . Some clarification came about in subsequent months, but there was no lack of unconscionable publications which, taking advantage of the issues and exploiting Ché's image for commercial purposes, incurred in falsehoods and distortions. An example of these is the book My Friend Ché , by Ricardo Rojo, where the author refers to me as machine-gunning the prisoner in cold blood." pp. 277-278.
October 9 - Guevara is moved to a schoolhouse in the hamlet of Higueras. The next day in that location, and at Gen. Alfredo Ovando's orders, he is murdered with the burst of a machine-gun by Serg. Maj. Mario Terán. Willy and another wounded guerrilla fighter are killed in the same fashion. Ché's corpse (and those of the other two murdered guerrilla fighters) are transported to Vallegrande by helicopter. Ché's body is placed in view of the journalists for a few hours at the hospital. Afterward, they cut off one of his hands, which will be delivered to the police in Buenos Aires for identification purposes, and his body is made to disappear. To this date, the destiny of Ché's body is unknown. (see 1997)
October 10 - The corpses of Ché, Willi and Chino are exhibited before the Bolivian press in the laundry room of the Nuestro Señor de Malta Hospital, in Vallegrande. Gen. Ovando shows Ché's Diary at a press conference.
October 11 - According to Col. Zenteno Anaya's report to the press, Ché's body was removed from Nuestro Señor de Malta Hospital at 4.30 a.m., and buried "somewhere in Vallegrande."
October 12 - Ché's younger brother, Attorney Roberto Guevara de la Serna, arrives in Santa Cruz from Buenos Aires, accompanied by reporters from Gente magazine and Argentinean TV. There he requests permission from Col. Zenteno Anaya to identify the remains of his brother. Zenteno Anaya informs him that he must address his request to the Upper Command in La Paz. Roberto Guevara travels to La Paz for the purpose of seeing Gen. Barrientos and Gen. Ovando.
October 12 - During an impromptu press conference given yesterday, Barrientos declared that the guerrilla leader was urgently buried in a place whose name will never be disclosed. Ultima Hora, La Paz.
October 12 - Roberto Guevara gets to interview Gen. Ovando who informs him that Ché's body had been burned in Vallegrande. Roberto Guevara returns to Buenos Aires the following day.
Fuentes