La Higuera

La Higuera is a town in the department of Santa Cruz in the South American Andes State of Bolivia. The Spanish toponym means " fig tree " that grows in the area of La Higuera in large numbers.

Location in near space

La Higuera is located in the district ( bolivian: Municipio) Pucara in the province of Valle Grande. The village lies at an altitude of 2047 m eight kilometers east of the deep valley of the Río Grande, the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Central in the west and the Cordillera Oriental in the east separates from each other here.

Geography

La Higuera is situated on a high ridge in the southwestern foothills of the Cordillera Oriental.

The average annual temperature of the region is 18 ° C (see climate chart Valle Grande) and varies only slightly between 15 ° C in July and 20 ° C from November to January. The annual rainfall is about 700 mm, with a distinct dry season from May to September with monthly rainfall less than 25 mm, and a humidity time from December to February, with more than 100 mm month precipitation.

Traffic network

La Higuera is situated at a distance of 315 kilometers of road south west of Santa Cruz, the capital of the department of the same name.

From Santa Cruz the paved highway Ruta 7 leads in a westerly direction to Cochabamba and reached after 187 kilometers above Samaipata and the small town of La Angostura Mataral. From there, the Ruta 22 branches off to the south and leads to 61 kilometers above the Valle Grande to Guadalupe. Here is the starting point of the 2004 newly furnished Ruta 38 ( " Ruta del Che" ) that crosses west to 74 miles the Rio Grande, and a side road south leads from the on the amount of La Higuera.

Population

The population of the town has declined in the decade between the last two censuses registered by almost half. Data from the last census in 2012 are not yet available:

Due to the historically evolved population distribution, the region has a high proportion of Aymara population in the municipality of Calacoto 93.1 % of the population speak the Aymara language.

History

La Higuera was known by the Argentinean- Cuban revolutionary and guerrilla Ernesto " Che " Guevara, who was shot dead here on 9 October 1967 by the Bolivian army, with the participation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Che Guevara then led a small group of internationalist guerrillas who wanted to build a guerilla army under the name of ELN in Bolivia and were supported by Cuba. Before them but the construction of a powerful group had succeeded, they were discovered and engaged in skirmishes with the Bolivian military, which was supported by the CIA. The troops was very early separated: Che Guevara led a group that was wandering around in search of the second group on the eastern Andean slopes and occasionally laid ambushes against the army. Contact between the two groups could not be made ​​but until the end. Mid-year 1967, the refuge of the armed fighters to the Cubans was getting close. The second group was wiped out on August 31, 1967; with her boss Juan Acuña Núñez Vitalio died the German - Argentine Tamara Bunke ( " Tania la guerilla " ) in an enemy ambush in Vado de Puerto Mauricio.

Che Guevara's group, which consisted of only 14 men at the end was, on 8 October 1967 in the past at La Higuera Quebrada del Churo (also: Quebrada del Yuro ) tracked down by government troops. After fierce fighting, the wounded Comandante Che Guevara was arrested there and brought to the school building of La Higuera, where he was interrogated under the direction of a CIA agent. The following day he was shot in the village without trial. The body of Che Guevara should be removed without a trace and was secretly buried in Valle Grande on the airfield.

In La Higuera and a memorial monument in the form of a larger than life bust of Che Guevara, the former school house is a memorial.