World | Che Guevara General Who Captured Che Guevara Dead at 84 Gary Prado Salmón had been struggling with health issues By Evann Gastaldo Posted May 8, 2023 3:00 AM CDT Copied A protester holds a banner with the image of Cuban revolutionary icon, the Argentine Ernesto "Che" Guevara, during a May Day demonstration in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) The Bolivian general who captured Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967, leading the military operation that took down Guevara's communist insurrection, has died at age 84. The BBC reports that Gary Prado Salmón "became a national hero" after Guevara's capture; the guerrilla fighter was executed the very next day. Mario Terán, the Bolivian officer who carried out the execution, fatally shooting Guevara, died last year. Of Salmón, his son wrote on social media that he was "accompanied by his wife and children" when he died Saturday, Yahoo News reports. "He left us a legacy of love, honesty and mettle. He was an amazing person." He wrote a book aptly titled How I Captured Che, but his son has previously said, "for him capturing Che was not the most important thing he did in his life—rather, it was to contribute to making the armed forces a democratic institution that would respect the constitution and laws." He was paralyzed after being accidentally shot in the spine in 1981, and retired from the military seven years later. Read These Next Gavin Newsom has filed a massive lawsuit against Fox News. New York Times ranks the best movies of the 21st century. A man has been deported for kicking an airport customs beagle. Supreme Court gives Trump big win on national injunctions. Report an error