7 Mar 2011

Che's motorcycle buddy dies in Cuba

1:53 am on 7 March 2011

The motorcycle companion of Ernesto Che Guevara has died in Cuba.

Alberto Granado was 88.

The pair's eight-month journey around Latin America was immortalised in the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries.

The journey, begun in 1951, exposed the two medical students to deep poverty and social injustice and awoke Guevara's revolutionary convictions.

After helping Fidel Castro overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Guevara invited Granado to Cuba.

Cuban state media said he died of natural causes in Havana.

After arriving in Cuba in 1961, Granado taught biochemistry at Havana University.

Cuban television says his body is to be cremated and according to his wishes, the ashes are to be spread in Cuba, Venezuela and his birth country Argentina.