 As second in command , Guevara was a harsh disciplinarian who sometimes shot defectors . Deserters were punished as traitors , and Guevara was known to send squads to track those seeking to go AWOL . As a result , Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness . During the guerrilla campaign , Guevara was also responsible for the sometimes summary execution of a number of men accused of being informers , deserters or spies . In his diaries , Guevara described the first such execution of Eutimio Guerra , a peasant army guide who admitted treason when it was discovered he accepted the promise of ten thousand pesos for repeatedly giving away the rebel 's position for attack by the Cuban air force . Such information also allowed Batista 's army to burn the homes of peasants sympathetic to the revolution . Upon Guerra 's request that they " end his life quickly " , Che stepped forward and shot him in the head , writing " The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for Eutimio so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain , with exit orifice in the right temporal [ lobe ] . " His scientific notations and matter @-@ of @-@ fact description , suggested to one biographer a " remarkable detachment to violence " by that point in the war . Later , Guevara published a literary account of the incident , titled " Death of a Traitor " , where he transfigured Eutimio 's betrayal and pre @-@ execution request that the revolution " take care of his children " , into a " revolutionary parable about redemption through sacrifice " . 
