Monika Ertl (1937 – May 12, 1973), the daughter of the camera man Hans Ertl, was a member of the armed political underground movement in Bolivia.
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Ertl was born 1937 in Munich. After World War II her father emigrated to Bolivia where he continued to film for some time and became a farmer.
Monika Ertl came to Bolivia in 1953 when her father brought the family over. In Bolivia she entered briefly a marriage before she joined the political underground. In Germany, she became known as Che Guevara's avenger because of her alleged involvement in the murder of Colonel Roberto Quintanilla Pereira in Hamburg, Germany: although this has never been completely proven it can safely be assumed that she did not shoot Quintanilla who, at the time, was serving in Hamburg as the Bolivian consul.[1]
She was eventually ambushed and killed by Bolivian security forces on May 12, 1973 in La Paz where she was reorganizing the Bolivian ELN. According to Régis Debray she was preparing the abduction of the former Gestapo Chief of Lyons Klaus Barbie to bring him to Chile and consequently to justice in France where he was wanted as a Nazi war criminal.