Prensa Latina – 2007-10-01 23:25:08

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B7A720744-2A35-449E-84A7-0EFEF943AB1E%7D)&language=EN

HAVANA (September 29, 2007) — Cuban doctors doing free cataract surgery at a hospital donated by the Island operated on Bolivian ex Sergeant Mario Teran assassin of guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara in 1967.

Teran, now elderly, was operated on in Santa Cruz at an institution that President Evo Morales inaugurated.

The ex military murdered Che in October 1967 at the school in La Higuera, after he was caught wounded and unarmed the day before, reminds the Cuban daily Granma in its feature Che vuelve a ganar otro combate (Che Wins a New Combat).

“No one will remember him tomorrow, as it happened four decades ago when he hit the news (…) I ask you not erase this name (Mario Teran) from your memory, so no one will forget and all will judge,” said the author.

Teran Jr. Went to Santa Cruz’s daily El Deber and asked to release a note thanking the Cuban doctors who restored his father’s sight via the Operation Miracle program.

[Teran] will never be able to draw a line between the ideas that turned him a cold-blooded murderer and this man that sent doctors from his guerrilla ranks to cure alike wounded comrades and enemies.

[Granma] stresses “Remember this name: Mario Teran, a man trained to kill that sees again thanks to the doctors that followed the ideas of his victim.” Teran followed orders of Generals Rene Barrientos and Alfredo Ovando, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, reminds the source. Che did not even close his eyes after he died, to be able to accuse his assassin that resorted to alcohol to fulfill the order.

[Teran] told the media later that he shook like a leaf before that man whom at the moment he saw as “big, very big, huge. . .” Wounded and unarmed, Che Guevara had the courage his assassin lacked to open his worn-out green-olive shirt, to show his chest and shout: “Stop shaking and shoot here, that you are going to kill a man.”

“Now an old man,” [the Granma story continues] “Teran will be able to see the colors of the sky and the forest again, enjoy the smiles of his grand children and watch soccer matches.” The feature concludes that four decades after Mario Teran tried to destroy a dream and ideals with his crime, Che wins another combat and continues in campaign.

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