One of the men who tracked down and killed Ernesto "Che" Guevara is selling a dozen strands of the iconic revolutionary's hair at auction on Thursday.
The sale has generated protests from both Guevara's widow and supporters around the world.
The lock of hair and other artifacts, including photos of Che's dead body and fingerprints taken post-mortem, are being offered with a minimum bid level of 100,000 dollars.
The items belong to Gustavo Villoldo, who was an American CIA liaison to a group of US Rangers authorized by the Bolivian government to apprehend Che Guevara 40 years ago this month.
"He kept some remembrances of the whole experience, but until now he's never been willing to part with them," said Tom Slater, of Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, Texas.
The Cuban-born Villoldo was not available for an interview, but Slater said Villoldo is unhappy with the mythic status Guevara has attained through the years.
"He doesn't like the way Che has become a political icon, so he's anxious to get the whole story out," Slater told AFP. "He feels that Che was a murderer and a bandit and it was appropriate to hunt him down."
Guevara, a 39-year-old Argentine who became a Cuban and internationalist guerrilla leader, was tracked down and killed in the Bolivian jungle on October 9, 1967.
Villoldo said he removed the lock of hair and took the photos and fingerprints as proof that the mission was completed.
Slater said e-mails of protest have come from groups and individuals who have "a left-leaning political persuasion" and don't understand the collector's mentality.
One of the e-mails written in Spanish described the auction as an "aberration committed by unscrupulous beings who attack the memory of our unforgettable Ernesto Che Guevara."
The sender called for creation of "worldwide committees where we denounce those who sell or dare to buy ... relics of humanity."
"They view the sale of his hair in particular almost as a sacrilege, a desecration," Slater said, adding that the e-mails have not threatened injury or property damage, so he has not reported them to law enforcement.
Guevara's widow has also publicly "expressed dismay" about the sale, he said.
However, he has hired additional uniformed and plainclothes security for the preview and sale.
The Guevara lot also includes a map used in the chase, an intercepted telegraph between rebel groups that allowed pursuers to pinpoint Guevara's location and identification cards Villoldo received from the Bolivian government.
