 On July 7 , 1953 , Guevara set out again , this time to Bolivia , Peru , Ecuador , Panama , Costa Rica , Nicaragua , Honduras and El Salvador . On December 10 , 1953 , before leaving for Guatemala , Guevara sent an update to his Aunt Beatriz from San José , Costa Rica . In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the dominion of the United Fruit Company ; a journey which convinced him that Company 's capitalist system was a terrible one . This affirmed indignation carried the more aggressive tone he adopted in order to frighten his more Conservative relatives , and ends with Guevara swearing on an image of the then recently deceased Joseph Stalin , not to rest until these " octopuses have been vanquished " . Later that month , Guevara arrived in Guatemala where President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán headed a democratically elected government that , through land reform and other initiatives , was attempting to end the latifundia system . To accomplish this , President Árbenz had enacted a major land reform program , where all uncultivated portions of large land holdings were to be expropriated and redistributed to landless peasants . The biggest land owner , and one most affected by the reforms , was the United Fruit Company , from which the Árbenz government had already taken more than 225 @,@ 000 acres ( 91 @,@ 000 ha ) of uncultivated land . Pleased with the road the nation was heading down , Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to " perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary . " 
