Kevin Macdonald's film, The Last King of Scotland, was a fictionalised account of Idi Amin. Now, Macdonald has raised the intriguing possibility that Che Guevara's capture by the CIA in the forests of Bolivia 40 years ago was orchestrated by Klaus Barbie, the Nazi war criminal called the 'Butcher of Lyon'. Barbie was the Gestapo chief in Lyon whose crimes included the murder of 44 Jewish children, taken from an orphanage and sent to Auschwitz. Improbably, the men's paths crossed in Bolivia. My Enemy's Enemy, a documentary directed by Macdonald, examines how Barbie's record was disregarded when he was recruited by US intelligence after the Second World War as a useful tool against communism. He evaded French justice by fleeing to Bolivia where, living under the alias Klaus Altmann, he was welcomed by fascist sympathisers. In 1966 a disguised Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organise the overthrow of its military dictatorship.
The Americans had been hunting Guevara and turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare: he had attempted to crush the French Resistance and was responsible for the death of its celebrated leader, Jean Moulin. Barbie met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US, and gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. Barbie had little respect for Che Guevara. He said once, "This poor man wouldn't have survived at all if he fought in the Second World War. He was a pitiful adventurer, nothing like his popular image. The people have turned him into a myth, a great figure. But what has he actually achieved? Absolutely nothing".' I suppose Barbie himself thought he had achieved a whole lot...
The Che claim came from several sources. In October 1967 the Bolivian army, with CIA help, captured the 39-year-old Guevara and killed him.
Barbie was involved in torture again in Bolivia and dreamed of establishing a Fourth Reich in the Andes. But he was tracked down by Nazi hunters and eventually extradited to France, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in jail in Lyon in September 1991.
The Americans had been hunting Guevara and turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare: he had attempted to crush the French Resistance and was responsible for the death of its celebrated leader, Jean Moulin. Barbie met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US, and gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. Barbie had little respect for Che Guevara. He said once, "This poor man wouldn't have survived at all if he fought in the Second World War. He was a pitiful adventurer, nothing like his popular image. The people have turned him into a myth, a great figure. But what has he actually achieved? Absolutely nothing".' I suppose Barbie himself thought he had achieved a whole lot...
The Che claim came from several sources. In October 1967 the Bolivian army, with CIA help, captured the 39-year-old Guevara and killed him.
Barbie was involved in torture again in Bolivia and dreamed of establishing a Fourth Reich in the Andes. But he was tracked down by Nazi hunters and eventually extradited to France, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in jail in Lyon in September 1991.
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