The circumstances of South & Central America during the 1950s & 1960s did play a role as well in the way his career was chosen. During the 1950s a dictator by the name of Fulgencio Batista was in charge of Cuba. Born in 1901, Batista was born into a sugar-harvesting family. When he was 20 years old he decided to join the army where he had a successful career. He was promoted to colonel of a specific sector within the Cuban army and later in 1939, he was elected as the President of Cuba. His right-wing political views made him an unpopular political leader that the population of Cuba did not appreciate or respect.
Batista came to power a few months after the 1952 elections where he did not receive majority votes. He overthrew the Cuban government and stated himself as the leader of the country. His rule was oppressive, the poor were not looked after and were not provided for. The rich were able to survive as long as they paid a fee to Batista where he would gain profits. Being so close to America, Cuba was a destination for many rich Americans to gamble and party. Cuba was becoming an area for people to do anything they wanted to do essentially.
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The rule of Batista was so biased toward the rich that it took only around one year for a group of people to attack. This attack was carried out on July 26th, 1953 led by a man by name of Fidel Castro. Although this attack was considered a failure, it gave people even more of a reason to go against Batista. He implemented a rule due to his paranoia after the failed attack which he called the “10 to 1” order. Which implied that for every soldier that was killed, ten random civilians were to be killed as a scare tactic. After this specific attack, Batista would arrest many political rebels and guerrillas that were fighting against his views of him. More specifically, Castro was arrested along with his remaining army and was held in a Cuban prison for two years. It took less than five years after his release for Castro to gain a massive following. Not long after Castro had been released from prison is when Guevara started to get involved in this movement that Castro was making.
Guevara would be introduced to him and he started to obtain a lot of messages that the Castro brothers were trying to portray to the Cuban people. Guevara agreed heavily with the Castro brothers because they were explaining to him all the troubles that Cuba was going through, and Guevara having seen these problems first hand amplified his feelings toward the matter drastically since he knew that the country was not being run properly. Guevara and Castro were the perfect combinations that made Cuba a more sustainable country as they were the fighting force that was going to change lives for everyone and more specifically, the poor. Due to a poor leader, there was a bad economy. The money that could have been spent on improving the lives of the poor was going to the pockets of Batista and his family. This result was a warning sign to many Cubans that there needed to be a drastic change quickly. Roughly, 40% of the money that was being made because of the casinos built in Havana to attract tourists was going to Batista’s and his family’s bank accounts.
In late 1958, Batista lost trust and control of the Cuban army and government, he had to flee to the Dominican Republic after his reputation was completely destroyed. To an extent, this is why the times of the 1950s and 60s were so important for Guevara. Had Batista not been in power, then there would be no revolt against him led by Castro which arguably could’ve meant that there would have been no political career for Che Guevara. Generally, the scenes of this time period really gave Guevara a perspective on the matter, he was experiencing somebody destroying a functional country just because of greed. It was a combination of desired profits, power, and control, Batista was guilty of being a person that was very egotistical and prioritized his own life rather than the improvement of the country that he was ruling. One can assume that he felt attacked personally and victimized as he came from quite an average family because they would also be targeted in the world of Batista. Not only that, but he had beliefs that were opposed completely to Batista, Guevara may have compared these two ideologies and evaluated which he felt was more efficient, obviously thinking that his own was the more beneficial one for Cuba.
For these reasons, it was important that Guevara was born into these times, because had he not been, there is a possibility that there wouldn’t be a career for him in politics. Furthermore, in this particular sense, the circumstances of the region and the time frame were crucial in exposing opportunities for him to intervene and start his rule of changing the area into his ideal vision. It offered him opposing threats that he needed to eliminate, it showed him the inevitable results of what South and Central America could potentially have if this ruling was still carried out but it also gave him major support as many people agreed with his vision of opposing Batista and the regime that he was trying to implement. That is why this time period in this specific area was so crucial in ultimately setting his political career up.
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