Bolivian soldier that killed Che Guevara has died

By Muhammed Emin Canik

BUENOS AIRES (AA) - The Bolivian soldier who executed Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967, passed away at the age of 80, Bolivian media reported on Thursday.

Retired Gen. Gary Prado Salmon, who led the military operation to capture Guevara, confirmed Mario Teran Salazar’s death to Bolivian daily El Deber.

Salazar suffered from a fatal disease and died in a hospital where he had been treated for some time in the country's Santa Cruz province.

"He (Salazar) was a brave man, who graduated from the School of Sergeants in 1961. I kept in touch with him, what worried him most was the harassment of the press, because he wanted to remain anonymous, because he simply voluntarily complied with the decision that came from the presidency," Salmon said.

Iconic Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, also a major figure of the Cuban Revolution, was captured in Bolivia on Oct. 9, 1967, by a joint operation of the Bolivian army and US Central Intelligence Agency.

He was executed at a school in rural La Higuera, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) from Bolivia's administrative capital La Paz.