 Guevara was tied up and taken to a dilapidated mud schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera on the evening of October 8 . For the next half day , Guevara refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers and would only speak quietly to Bolivian soldiers . One of those Bolivian soldiers , a helicopter pilot named Jaime Nino de Guzman , describes Che as looking " dreadful " . According to Guzman , Guevara was shot through the right calf , his hair was matted with dirt , his clothes were shredded , and his feet were covered in rough leather sheaths . Despite his haggard appearance , he recounts that " Che held his head high , looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only for something to smoke . " De Guzman states that he " took pity " and gave him a small bag of tobacco for his pipe , and that Guevara then smiled and thanked him . Later on the night of October 8 , Guevara — despite having his hands tied — kicked a Bolivian army officer , named Captain Espinosa , against a wall after the officer entered the schoolhouse and tried to snatch Guevara 's pipe from his mouth as a souvenir while he was still smoking it . In another instance of defiance , Guevara spat in the face of Bolivian Rear Admiral <unk> , who attempted to question Guevara a few hours before his execution . 
