Che For Sale

The Miami exile who helped capture and bury Che Guevara is auctioning a lock of the rebel’s hair he has kept secret and under lock and key for 40 years

The Miami exile who led the mission to capture Ernesto Che Guevara in the jungles Bolivia is auctioning a treasure trove of memorabilia from the iconic figure’s last days.

Among the items for sale: a lock of Che’s long, wavy hair snipped minutes before the rebel leader was buried in a common grave 40 years ago.

”It’s time for me to put the past behind and pass these on to someone else,” said Gustavo Villoldo, 71, a now-retired grandfather who led the joint CIA-Bolivian army mission to stop Che’s aspirations to duplicate a Cuban-style revolution.

Villoldo has preserved a large scrapbook of his controversial assignment, but one he is proud of.

Villoldo, a Bay of Pigs veteran whose role in Che’s demise is confirmed in unclassified secret documents, considers Che a cold-blooded killer partly responsible for his father’s shattered life and suicide in the wake of the Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro and Che, his right-hand man, to power.

Villoldo has joined forces with Heritage Auctions of Dallas, the world’s largest collectibles auctioner, to stage a first of its kind, international sale of his Che scrapbook on Oct. 25 and 26.

They hope to attract bids in excess of six figures.

Besides the thick strand of Che’s sunburned hair, the auction winner inherits:

• The original map used by Villoldo and the Bolivian army to hunt down Che and his band of rebels, including the famed Tania. All had come to Bolivia to spark another Cuban-style revolution.

• Telegrams Villoldo received from then-Bolivian President Rene Barrientos about the progress of the mission.

• Photographs of a dead, shirtless Che on display in a laundry room sink in Bolivia. Prints and copyrights are included.

• Intercepted messages between Che and his rebels, which eventually led to their deaths after gun battles with the Bolivian army.

• And one of two sets of Che’s fingerprints taken before burial. Villoldo kept one; Cuba has the other. Che’s hands were eventually severed to prevent Cuba from identifying him easily.

Tom Slater, director of the Americana Department for Heritage, expects the bidding — which can be done in person, online, by phone, fax or by mail — to be lively for the one-of-a-kind scrapbook.