When embracing Latin American hero is painful (5)
I believe the answer is:
aches
'is painful' is the definition.
(if something aches it is painful)
'when embracing latin american hero' is the wordplay.
'when' becomes 'as' (eg 'when I walked' means 'as I walked').
'embracing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'latin american hero' becomes 'Che' (revolutionary Che Guevara).
'as' placed around 'che' is 'ACHES'.
(Other definitions for aches that I've seen before include "sign of suffering" , "discomfort" , "Gives a dull pain" , "Continuous pains" , "Dull persistent pains" .)