Protests were sparked off around the world, while tributes poured in. Latin America specialists began to predict, correctly, that Guevara's life would be praised by Communists.

Even as his death led to the abandonment of guerrilla warfare in Cuba, within a couple of years Che's name began to symbolise rebellion.

French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre -- a revolutionary in his own right who refused to accept the Nobel Prize for literature -- described him as 'the most complete human being of our age'.

Throughout the West, the slogan 'Che lives!' began appearing on walls.

Photograph: The body of Che Guevara surrounded by Bolivian army officers and journalists, on public display in a makeshift morgue on October 10, 1967 in Vallegrande. He was captured on October 8 and shot dead a day later by Bolivian forces. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images