On April 1, 1971, the legendary ELN guerrilla fighter Monika Ertl avenged the death of her idol, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and executed Bolivian Colonel Roberto Quintanilla, the criminal who mutilated his corpse.

This story of espionage and revenge, despite how fascinating it was, is not something you'll see in Hollywood movies. Monika's story begins, strangely and unbelievably, in Nazi Germany. Monika was the daughter of Hans Ertl, personal photographer to Hitler and Erwin Rommel; her father was one of the most important Nazi propagandists.

After the Nazi defeat at the hands of the USSR, more than 9,000 Nazis hid like rats in South America under the protection of the US and the CIA. Monika and her father fled to Bolivia in 1950, arriving alongside Nazi genocidal figures like Klaus Barbie, "the Butcher of Lyon." Monika, despite growing up surrounded by Nazis, was a rebellious teenager with communist ideals.

She adored Che Guevara and admired his revolutionary fight to the death against imperialism. After ten years in Bolivia, Monika even founded an orphanage to help poor Bolivian children. Following Che Guevara's assassination in the Bolivian jungle in October 1967, Monika was deeply affected and decided to join the ELN guerrilla group, breaking with everything, including her family.

Her father told her never to return home. Monika wanted to avenge her idol, Che, so she returned to her native Germany, to Hamburg, in 1971, and began planning her revenge against Colonel Roberto Quintanilla—the coward who cut off Che Guevara's fingers and walked smiling beside his corpse, while Quintanilla was the consul in Germany.

The plan was devised in cooperation with the ELN's high command. It was to take place on April 1st, in an infiltration operation at the offices of the then-consul, Roberto Quintanilla. But Monika knew there was no turning back; she would have to live forever in hiding and would be a target for imperialism. On April 1, 1971, after securing an appointment with Che Guevara's assassin, Roberto Quintanilla, Monika, wearing a wig and sunglasses, disguised herself as an elderly tourist who needed to resolve a visa issue at the consulate. Monika sat in the waiting room, armed with a Colt Cobra revolver, waiting until Quintanilla appeared.

Looking at him silently, Monika shot the criminal Quintanilla three times in the chest, leaving a piece of paper as a signature that read: "Freedom or death. ELN." After exacting her revenge by killing the criminal who desecrated Che Guevara's body, Monika fled, leaving behind her bag, her weapon, and her wig. Imperialism put a price on her head, offering a reward even higher than the one offered for Che Guevara.

After years hiding in Cuba, Monika returned to Bolivia to continue fighting the imperialists with the ELN.

And the CIA entrusted her capture to an old acquaintance, someone with whom she had traveled with her father upon their arrival in Bolivia... the Nazi Klaus Barbie. Klaus Barbie, former head of the Gestapo who exterminated 11,000 people at the Auschwitz concentration camp, was on the CIA's payroll to assassinate Monika.

On May 12, 1973, in a clandestine ELN hideout in La Paz, Monika was located by the Nazi Klaus Barbie, surrounded by henchmen of the Bolivian regime. The guerrilla fighter and another comrade resisted the assault with gunfire until they ran out of ammunition; then she was tortured and murdered.

In the La Paz cemetery, Bolivia, there is a tombstone in her honor, although her remains are somewhere unknown in Bolivia. Monika avenged Che Guevara's assassination and died fighting imperialism, just like her idol; she remained true to her principles until her last breath.

Video link -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2039217382212997120/vid/avc1/1280x720/PgQGnFdL2IPHil9T.mp4

Source -> https://xcancel.com/DaniMayakovski/status/2039217910942421179#m