Backyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 1 of 14 · 51 min
How American Doctors Defeated Che Guevara
In 1960s eastern Bolivia, American researchers hunted the cause of a lethal fever called Black Typhus and traced it to a jungle mouse that thrived after DDT killed the village cats. A few years later, U.S.-trained Bolivian Rangers captured and killed Che Guevara nearby. The episode weighs whether American goodwill in the east made his revolutionary pitch harder to land, as one contested reading among several.
Who's who
- Karl M. Johnson+2 more episodesVirologist who isolated Machupo virus and later helped name Ebola
- Patricia Webb+2 more episodesResearcher on the Bolivian outbreak who caught the disease and nearly died
- Merle Kuns+1 more episodeMember of the Middle America Research Unit team
- Che GuevaraRevolutionary captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967
- Félix RodríguezCIA officer present at Guevara's execution
Where it happens
- San Joaquín, Bolivia+1 more episodeTown where clearing rodents from half of it broke the epidemic
- La Esperanza, BoliviaWhere U.S. Special Forces trained the 2nd Ranger Battalion
- Quebrada del Yuro, BoliviaSite of Guevara's capture
- La Higuera, BoliviaSite of Guevara's execution
Timeline
- 1960sMachupo virus isolated and traced to a jungle mouse after DDT spraying killed village cats
- 1967U.S.-trained Bolivian Rangers corner Che Guevara in a manhunt
- 1967Guevara captured at the Quebrada del Yuro and executed at La Higuera
Still debated
Whether American goodwill from medical work in eastern Bolivia made Che's revolutionary message harder to land is one contested interpretation among several, not a settled fact.
