Che Guevara was the legendary Latin American guerrilla fighter who joined the Cuban revolutionary movement that toppled the Batista dictatorship. He played a leading role in the early years of the Cuban Revolution and made an extraordinary and original contribution to Marxist theory. He died at the hands of CIA assassins in Bolivia in 1967. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 and were founders of the First International Workingmen's Association. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 and were founders of the First International Workingmen's Association. Rosa Luxemburg was a leader of the German Social Democratic Federation and jailed for her opposition to WWI. She was assassinated in 1919.