LA PAZ: The Bolivian soldier Mario Terán Salazar, who claimed to have killed the Argentine-Cuban guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967, died this Thursday at the age of 80 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in eastern Bolivia, reported their relatives.
Mario Teran Salazar, who claims to be the one who executed famed revolutionary guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara, died in Bolivia on Thursday at age 80, reports said.
"He died of prostate cancer," his son Mario confirmed to AFP, adding that the soldier died around midnight on Thursday (04:00 GMT).
"He was sick and there was nothing to do," Gary Prado, the soldier who captured Che in the Bolivian jungle 54 years ago, told AFP.
"The family and comrades from the Armed Forces notified me because he was admitted to the Military Hospital," explained Prado, who was Terán's instructor at the sergeant's school.
On October 8, 1967, the Bolivian army arrested Guevara, a mythical figure of armed revolutionary action during the Cold War, with the support of two Cuban-American CIA agents.
Che was the head of a handful of guerrillas who had survived combat, hunger and disease.
Wounded in combat, he was taken to an abandoned school in the town of La Higuera.
He spent his last night there. He was reportedly executed by Terán with the approval of President René Barrientos (1964-1969), a fierce anti-communist.
"That was the worst moment of my life. At that moment I saw 'Che' big, very big, huge. His eyes shone brightly," Terán recounted then.
"I felt that he was on top of me and when he stared at me, it made me dizzy. I thought that with a quick movement 'Che' could take the weapon away from me. 'Be calm,' he told me, 'and aim well! You are going to kill a man!' Then I took a step back, towards the threshold of the door, I closed my eyes and I fired", narrated the soldier.
At the age of 39, Che became a legend, while his inert body and open-eyed face were exhibited like a trophy in the neighboring town of Vallegrande, an image immortalized by AFP photographer Marc Hutten.
After 30 years of service, Terán retired and remained anonymous, avoiding the press. He even went so far as to affirm that Guevara's murderer had not been him, but another soldier with the same name and surname.
After completing his medical studies and multiple trips that forged his convictions, Guevara, born in the Argentine city of Rosario, met Raúl and Fidel Castro in Mexico before enlisting in the guerrilla that brought the "bearded" to power in Cuba, in 1959.
Years after his unsuccessful attempt to spread the fire of the armed revolution in the Congo, months of "disappearance" followed before he undertook his last guerrilla warfare in Bolivia.