Prado Salmon leads a US-backed military operation to capture Argentine communist revolutionaries.
Bolivian general Gary Prado Salmon, who captured communist revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara in 1967, died Saturday at the age of 84, his son revealed on social media.
“He had his wife and kids with him,” Gary Prado Arauz wrote on Facebook.
“He left us with a legacy of love, integrity and courage. He was a wonderful person.”
The Prado Salmon was on patrol in southwestern Bolivia on October 8, 1967, capturing a wounded Argentine revolutionary during a U.S.-backed military campaign against communist rebels.
The next day, Bolivian forces executed Guevara, who had made a name for himself with Fidel Castro in the Cuban communist revolution.
The United States opposed left-wing activists and political parties in Latin America, fearing the growing influence of the communist Soviet Union. Cuba is still under US sanctions because of its former close ties with the Soviet Union.
Former US President Barack Obama established diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015 for the first time in 50 years, but the move was reversed by his successor, Donald Trump.
Prado Salmon has been in hospital since mid-April, suffering from health complications.
The Bolivian Congress declared him a national hero for his role in Guevara’s arrest. At that time, the military ruled the Latin American country.
In 2017, thousands gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of a revolutionary at the hands of CIA-trained Bolivian forces.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said, “To mark the 50th anniversary of Che’s death is to remember the struggle for dignity and national sovereignty, and against imperialism.
Prado Salmon was left paralyzed after being accidentally shot in the spine in 1981. He retired from the military in 1988.