On the personal front, he divorced his wife Hilda Gadea -- with whom he had had a long relationship, and a daughter in 1956 -- and married Aleida March, a Cuban-born member of Castro's movement.

The years that followed saw him travel the world, from New York to Paris, Egypt to Ireland, Prague to China. He gave interviews to the press, appeared on television programmes, even dined with the Rockefellers -- all before disappearing from public view soon after returning to Cuba.

Photgraph: Aleida, 47, and Camilo Guevara, 45, the daughter and son of Che Guevara at a press conference at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. Aleida and Camilo would have been seven and four respectively when their father died in 1967. Aleida is a doctor who has worked in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Angola and Camilo is a member of the Cuban goverment. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images