Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, and guerrilla leader. He formed his political ideas after seeing the extreme poverty in Latin America, believing that the cause was economic inequality due to monopolistic capitalism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism. He was instrumental in helping Cuba’s Fidel Castro overthrow the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.