The World - News from Jan. 15, 1989

Bolivian police said former President Luis Garcia Meza escaped from house arrest to duck charges he tried to peddle the stolen diaries of famed Cuban guerrilla commander Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Authorities said they went to the former dictator’s home in the colonial city of Sucre on Friday after Congress charged him with stealing the diaries but could not find him. Guevara, perhaps the world’s most famous guerrilla commander and trusted right hand of Fidel Castro, died from wounds suffered in a gun battle in Churo, Bolivia on Oct. 8, 1967. Soldiers seized the Guevara diaries, which were then placed in an army strongbox, only to show up at a London auction house in 1984 where they were put up for sale for $300,000.