Ah, the Guardian. Never met a murderous Communist they didn’t like: Spirit of Che rises again as region is swept along on a pink tide.

When the haggard and broken figure was laid out on the slab and displayed to the world it was not just Che Guevara that had died. The dream of socialist revolution in South America was over.

His image and name would continue to inspire millions but on the continent he wanted to transform he was a political failure, a defeated guerrilla on the wrong side of history.

Bolivia’s peasants spurned Che’s rebellion, leaving the Bolivian army and the CIA to capture him on October 8 1967, kill him the following day, and rid South America of Cuba’s revolutionary spirit. The soldiers reportedly drew straws to determine who would have the honour of shooting Che.

“And so he is dead,” wrote the Guardian’s Richard Gott, one of the few journalists at the scene that day. “As they pumped preservative into his half-naked, dirty body and as the crowd shouted to be allowed to see, it was difficult to recall that this man had once been one of the great figures of Latin America.”

It was difficult to feel his ideas would die with him, Gott added. He was right. Forty years later the anniversary of the death is looming and the scene is transformed: the Cubans are back, socialism is back, and Che is officially a hero.

Great.