By BARRY WIGMORE

Last updated at 09:31 09 October 2007

For 40 years the legend has grown of a dashing revolutionary fighting evil oppressors.

Helped by an iconic photograph reproduced around the world on mugs and T-shirts, Che Guevara has become a romantic symbol of freedom to millions.

Now, on the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death, the former CIA man who hunted him down in the Bolivian jungle has talked in detail for the first time of his capture and execution - and revealed a rather more realistic portrait.

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"Most people don't know the real Guevara," said veteran spy Felix Rodriguez, 67.

"The Guevara who wrote that he was thirsty for blood, who assassinated thousands of people without any regard for any real legal process..."

He revealed that said CIA chiefs wanted their man alive for interrogation, but were overruled by Bolivian authorities.

It was his job to tell the hero of the Cuban revolution he was to be shot without trial.

Mr Rodriguez recalled: "Che turned white... before saying: 'It's better this way, I should have died in combat'."

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Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro win power in 1959 then oversaw the trial and execution of hundreds of "war criminals" from the previous regime, had been in Bolivia in a bid to spread the revolution.

He and his 50 fighters were trapped on October 8 1967 after a tip-off from a farmer.

As 200 American-led troops closed in, said Mr Rodriguez, Guevara shouted: "Don't shoot. I'm Che Guevara - I'm worth more to you alive than dead."

He said Guevara - who had studied medicine in his native Argentina - looked nothing like the uniformed revolutionary the world had seen being feted by Soviet and Chinese leaders.

The 39-year-old had been wounded in the right leg and was suffering from chronic asthma.

Mr Rodriguez said: "This man looked more like a beggar. His uniform was in rags.

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"He didn't have a pair of boots, just pieces of leather wrapped round his shoes. I felt sorry for him as a human being."

Guevara was locked in the school at a nearby village while Mr Rodriguez waited for orders from Bolivian president Rene Barrientos.

A simple code had been arranged - 500 meant Che Guevara, 600 meant dead, 700 alive.

When the command came the following morning, on the village's only phone, it was 500 - 600.

Guevara was killed with a burst of machine-gun fire, to look like a combat death.

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It was carefully aimed away from his face so there would be no doubt of his identity if Castro denied he was dead.

But Castro did not deny it, said Mr Rodriguez. "Instead, he built the Che Guevara legend."

Last night the legend was still going strong in Cuba where a 10,000 crowd paid tribute at a monument to Che.

The ailing Castro, 81, wrote in a newspaper: "I bow my head, with respect and gratitude, before the exceptional fighter who fell 40 years ago."