Félix Ismael Rodríguez is a Cold War warrior whose life reads like a spy novel: Cuban exile, Bay of Pigs veteran, helicopter combat soldier in Vietnam and El Salvador, Iran/Contra operative, and the CIA agent who helped capture iconic revolutionary Che Guevara in October 1967.

Rodríguez, a Cuban American who has lived in Miami most of his life, is now 84-years-old. He gets around with the help of his beloved daughter, Rosemarie Rodriguez, and a motorized wheelchair scooter. Late last year, Rodriguez discussed his amazing life before a packed audience at the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Lifelong Learning Institute, located inside the Alvin Sherman Library on the NSU campus in Davie, Florida.

“I was a CIA Operative in my early 20s when I helped capture Che Guevara almost 60 years ago,” Rodriguez said. “And despite all of the many other things I have done since then, my obituary will be about my involvement in the final months of Che’s life.”

Born in Havana on May 31,1941, Rodríguez grew up in a privileged household, but entered adulthood as the country underwent a revolution. He and his family lost everything and had to flee to the United States as political refugees.

“For a lot of Americans it is very difficult to understand losing your country to communism,” Rodriguez told Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes in a 1989 interview. “It is not easy. You have to experience it: to be taken away from your home, to be separated from your family, and not to be able to return. And that is something sticks with you for the rest of your life.”

At just 19 years old, Rodríguez joined Brigade 2506, the US-backed army of Cuban exiles trained to invade their homeland and topple dictator Fidel Castro. The mission’s disastrous failure at the Bay of Pigs became a defining moment for Rodríguez and hundreds like him: a sense of betrayal, of being sent into battle without proper support. Rodriguez said the experience cemented his determination to continue the fight against communism, wherever it appeared.

By the mid-1960s he was in Vietnam, operating under the alias “Max Gómez.” There, Rodríguez was embedded with US Special Forces and South Vietnamese units, working on counterinsurgency operations and often flying into dangerous combat zones. He participated in helicopter missions that pulled troops from hot landing zones under fire and helped train teams in psychological operations and interrogation techniques.

Rodríguez’s skills and reputation in Vietnam eventually caught the attention of the CIA, looking for operatives capable of blending field presence with intelligence finesse. That’s how, in early 1967, he was sent to Bolivia—on a mission that would become legendary.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary who helped Castro seize power in Cuba, had surfaced in Bolivia to ignite a guerrilla movement to overthrow the government. The CIA, alongside Bolivian forces, was determined to stop him. Rodríguez was attached to the Bolivian army as an adviser, interrogator and liaison, tracking the guerrilla band through rugged southeastern Bolivian terrain. After Bolivian rangers captured an injured Guevara and his fellow revolutionaries during a gun battle on October 8, 1967, Rodríguez became one of the last individuals to speak with him. The imprisoned Guevara was kept tied and bound in a tiny, barren school house located in the village of La Higuera.

Rodríguez claims he argued that Guevara should be kept alive for intelligence and interrogation purposes, but Bolivian government officials ordered otherwise.

Rodriguez said that the Bolivian government officials had a very simple code: 500 meant Che Guevara, 600 meant dead, 700 meant alive. “I was given the orders 500 and 600,” said Rodríguez who relayed the execution order to the Bolivian military at the site. A Bolivian sergeant volunteered to carry out the execution. After a few gunshots in that tiny schoolhouse, Guevara was dead.

Rodríguez’s career, however, continued to push forward. After Bolivia, he returned to Vietnam, where he developed close ties with senior military and political figures and further entrenched his identity as a Cold War foot soldier. When Saigon fell in 1975, Rodríguez helped evacuate South Vietnamese officials and their families—one of the episodes he has often described as most emotionally meaningful.

By the early 1980s, Rodríguez resurfaced in another ideological battleground: El Salvador. As the country plunged into civil war, he advised the Salvadoran air force, particularly in counterinsurgency aviation tactics. But his activities in Central America eventually intersected with one of the decade’s biggest scandals: Iran-Contra. Rodríguez assisted with logistical support for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, using his aviation network to help coordinate supply efforts. Although he was questioned by congressional investigators Rodriguez was never charged with wrongdoing.

Today, long retired from espionage, Rodríguez remains a vocal figure in Cuban-American political circles. He frequently gives interviews, lectures, and commentary on Cuba, US foreign policy, and his own long career. He continues to advocate for a democratic transition in Cuba and remains active, often appearing at events commemorating anti-communist causes.

After the conclusion of Rodriguez’s NSU Lifelong Learning Institute presentation last year, his daughter, Rosemarie Rodriguez, told the NSU student press, MAKO TV News and The Current: “[The presentation] was very moving for me because I have heard his stories throughout my life, but to hear him say it again in front of this audience, which was amazing, it just brought everything back to life for me.”