While living in Mexico City; Guevara met Ra鷏 and Fidel Castro; joined their 26th of July Movement; and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht; Granma; with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents; was promoted to second-in-command; and played a pivotal role in the victorious two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution; Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals; instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries; helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign; serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces; and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad; first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia; where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.