Four decades after his death, Che Guevara, the icon, lives on

'Che' returns to Buenos Aires




BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara returned to Buenos Aires Tuesday, his defiant expression immortalized in a towering bronze statue.

Guevara left the capital as a young doctor in 1953 to travel the continent and join the Cuban Revolution, becoming a political icon plastered on T-shirts and posters worldwide.

Now, a 3-ton (3 metric ton), 13-foot (4-meter) bronze replica of his image will tower over a plaza in the town of Rosario, his birthplace, topped with his famed starred beret.

But first, the statue toured the streets of Buenos Aires, swinging past his former university and ending at the Obelisk, a symbol of the Argentine capital.

"Finally, the city where he studied medicine, which was home to the most important dreams of his youth, sees him arrive again," said Eladio Gonzalez, director of the Ernesto Che Guevara Museum that helped promote the project.

Local artist Andres Zerneri used 75,000 bronze keys, donated by 14,000 Argentines over two years, to cast the statue.

The bronze replica arrives in Rosario Wednesday, ahead of an 80th anniversary celebration of the famed revolutionary's birth on June 14.

Guevara was executed in Bolivia in 1967 after promoting revolution there.