The Bolivian Diary (2 page)

June 14, 1928
Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina, of parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna; he will be the eldest of five children.

January–July 1952
Ernesto Guevara travels around Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado.

March 10, 1952
General Fulgencio Batista carries out a coup d'état in Cuba.

July 6, 1953
After graduating as a doctor in March, Ernesto Guevara sets off again to travel through Latin America. He visits Bolivia, observing the aftermath of the 1952 revolution.

July 26, 1953
Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful armed attack on the Moncada army garrison in Santiago de Cuba, launching the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Batista regime.

December 1953
Ernesto Guevara meets a group of Cuban survivors of the Moncada attack in San José, Costa Rica.

December 24, 1953
Ernesto Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the popularly elected government of Jacobo Árbenz.

January–June 1954
While in Guatemala, he studies Marxism
and becomes involved in political activities, meeting exiled Cuban revolutionaries.

August 1954
Mercenary troops backed by the CIA enter Guatemala City and begin massacring Árbenz supporters.

September 21, 1954
Ernesto Guevara arrives in Mexico City after fleeing Guatemala. He gets a job at the Central Hospital.

July 1955
Ernesto Guevara meets Fidel Castro soon after the latter arrives in exile in Mexico City after his release from prison in Cuba. Che immediately agrees to join the planned guerrilla expedition to Cuba. The Cubans nickname him “Che,” an Argentine term of greeting.

June 24, 1956
Che is arrested as part of a roundup by Mexican police of exiled Cuban revolutionaries.

November 25, 1956
Eighty-two combatants, including Che Guevara as troop doctor, sail for Cuba from Tuxpan, Mexico, aboard the small cabin cruiser
Granma.

December 2, 1956
The
Granma
reaches Cuba at Las Coloradas beach in Oriente province but are surprised by Batista's troops at Alegría de Pío and dispersed.

December 21, 1956
Che's group (led by Juan Almeida) reunites with Fidel Castro and his group, and they move deeper into the Sierra Maestra mountains.

January 17, 1957
The Rebel Army with some new peasant recruits successfully takes an army outpost in the battle of La Plata.

January 22, 1957
A significant victory over Batista's forces is scored at Arroyo del Infierno.

February 17, 1957
New York Times
journalist Herbert Matthews interviews Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra. The same day, the first meeting is held between the urban underground and the guerrillas of the July 26 Movement since the start of the revolutionary war.

March 13, 1957
A group of students from the Revolutionary Directorate attack the Presidential Palace and seize a major Havana radio station. Student leader José Antonio Echeverría is killed in this attack.

May 27–28, 1957
The battle of El Uvero takes place, in which Che Guevara stands out among the combatants.

July 12, 1957
The rebels issue the Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra calling for a broad political front against General Batista and support for the Rebel Army.

July 21, 1957
Che Guevara is selected to lead the newly established second column (Column 4) of the Rebel Army and is promoted to the rank of commander.

July 30, 1957
Frank País, the young leader of the urban underground in Santiago de Cuba, is killed.

August 20, 1957
Fidel leads Column 1 (José Martí) in defeating Batista's forces in the battle of Palma Mocha.

September 17, 1957
Che's forces ambush army troops at Pino del Agua.

October, 1957
The rebels establish a permanent supply base at El Hombrito in the Sierra Maestra.

October 12, 1957
Batista launches a brutal campaign to destroy the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra.

November–December, 1957
The rebels respond with a “winter offensive” against Batista's army.

February 16-17, 1958
The Rebel Army wins a significant victory against Batista in the second battle of Pino del Agua.

March 1, 1958
Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida lead columns that open up second and third fronts in Oriente province.

April 9, 1958
A national general strike is defeated.

May 25, 1958
Batista launches a military offensive against the Rebel Army, but this fails after two and a half months of intensive fighting.

July 11–21, 1958
A decisive defeat is inflicted on Batista's army in the battle of El Jigüe, significantly expanding the rebels' operational zone in the Sierra Maestra.

August 31, 1958
Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos lead invasion columns west from the Sierra Maestra toward central Cuba, opening new battle fronts in Las Villas province.

November 15, 1958
Fidel leaves the Sierra Maestra to direct the Rebel Army's final offensive in Santiago de Cuba. By the end of the month, Batista's elite troops are defeated at the battle of Guisa.

December 28, 1958
Che Guevara's Column 8 initiates the battle of Santa Clara and succeeds in taking control of the city within a few days.

January 1, 1959
Batista flees Cuba. Fidel enters Santiago de Cuba as the military regime collapses. Santa Clara falls to the Rebel Army.

January 2, 1959
Fidel Castro calls for a general strike and the
country is paralyzed. The Rebel Army columns led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos reach Havana.

January 8, 1959
Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.

February 9, 1959
Che Guevara is declared a Cuban citizen.

June 12–September 8, 1959
Che Guevara travels through Europe, Africa, and Asia; he signs various commercial, technical, and cultural agreements on behalf of the revolutionary government.

October 7, 1959
Che Guevara is designated head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).

November 25, 1959
Che Guevara is appointed president of the National Bank of Cuba.

March 5, 1960
At the funeral for the victims of a terrorist bombing on board the French ship
La Coubre,
Cuban photographer Alberto Korda snaps his famous photograph of Che Guevara.

March 17, 1960
President Eisenhower approves a CIA plan to overthrow the revolutionary government and to train a Cuban exile army to invade Cuba.

October 21, 1960
Che Guevara leaves on an extended visit to the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, China, and North Korea.

January 3, 1961
Washington breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.

February 23, 1961
The revolutionary government establishes the Ministry of Industry, headed by Che Guevara.

April 15, 1961
As a prelude to the planned invasion by US-organized forces, planes attack Santiago de Cuba and Havana.

April 16, 1961
At a mass rally Fidel Castro proclaims the socialist character of the Cuban revolution.

April 17–19, 1961
One thousand five hundred Cuban-born mercenaries, organized and backed by the United States, invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs but are defeated within 72 hours. Che Guevara is sent to command troops in Pinar del Río province.

August 8, 1961
Che Guevara condemns US President Kennedy's “Alliance for Progress” in a fiery speech to Organization of American States (OAS) Economic and Social Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, as head of Cuba's delegation. Cuba is subsequently expelled from the OAS.

February 3, 1962
President Kennedy orders a total trade embargo against Cuba.

August 27–September 7, 1962
Che Guevara makes his second visit to the Soviet Union.

October 1962
An international crisis breaks out after US spy planes discover Soviet missile installations in Cuba. Cuba responds by mobilizing its population for defense. Che Guevara is assigned to lead forces in Pinar del Río province in preparation for an imminent US invasion.

July 3–17, 1963
Che Guevara visits Algeria, recently independent under the government of Ahmed Ben Bella.

March 1964
Che Guevara meets with Tamara Bunke (Tania) to discuss her mission to move to Bolivia in anticipation of a future guerrilla expedition.

March 25, 1964
Che Guevara addresses the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.

November 4–9, 1964
Che Guevara visits the Soviet Union.

December 11, 1964
Che Guevara addresses the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, condemning the US war in Vietnam and supporting independence movements from Puerto Rico to the Congo.

December 17, 1964
Che Guevara leaves New York for Africa, where he visits Algeria, Mali, Congo (Brazzaville), Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, and Egypt.

February 24, 1965
Che Guevara addresses the Second Economic Seminar of the Organization of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers, controversially urging the socialist countries to do more to support Third World struggles for independence.

March 14, 1965
Che Guevara returns to Cuba and shortly afterwards drops from public view.

April 1, 1965
Che Guevara delivers a farewell letter to Fidel Castro. He subsequently leaves Cuba on a Cuban-sponsored internationalist mission in the Congo, Africa, entering through Tanzania.

April 18, 1965
In answer to questions about Che Guevara's whereabouts, Fidel Castro tells foreign reporters that Che “will always be where he is most useful to the revolution.”

June 16, 1965
Fidel Castro announces Che Guevara's location will be revealed “when Commander Guevara wants it known.”

October 3, 1965
Fidel Castro publicly reads Che Guevara's letter of farewell at a meeting to announce the central committee of the newly formed Communist Party of Cuba.

November 21, 1965
Che Guevara leaves the Congo, and begins writing up his account of the African mission, which he describes as a “failure.”

December 1965
Fidel Castro arranges for Che Guevara to return to Cuba in secret. Che Guevara prepares for a Cuban-sponsored guerrilla expedition to Bolivia.

January 3–14, 1966
The Tricontinental Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America is held in Havana.

March 1966
The first Cuban combatants arrive in Bolivia to begin advance preparations for a guerrilla movement. Tania has already been working there since 1964.

July 1966
Che Guevara meets with Cuban volunteers selected for the mission to Bolivia at a training camp in Cuba's Pinar del Río province.

November 4, 1966
Che Guevara arrives in La Paz, Bolivia, in disguise, using the assumed name of Ramón Benítez.

November 7, 1966
Che Guevara and several others arrive at the farm on the Ñacahuazú River where the guerrilla detachment will be based. Che makes his first entry in his diary of the Bolivia campaign.

December 31, 1966
Che Guevara meets with the secretary of the Bolivian Communist Party, Mario Monje. There is disagreement over perspectives for the planned guerrilla movement.

March 23, 1967
The first guerrilla military action takes place in a successful ambush of Bolivian Army troops.

March 25, 1967
The formation of the Bolivian National Liberation Army (ELN) is publicly announced.

April 16, 1967
Publication of Che Guevara's “Message to the Tricontinental,” which calls for the creation of “two, three, many Vietnams.”

April 17, 1967
The guerrilla detachment led by Joaquín (Vilo Acuña) is separated from the rest of the unit. The separation is supposed to last only a few days but the two groups are never able to reunite.

April 20, 1967
French intellectual Regís Debray and Ciro Bustos are arrested after having spent several weeks with the guerrilla unit in Bolivia. They are subsequently tried and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment.

May 1967
US Special Forces arrive in Bolivia to train counterinsurgency troops of the Bolivian Army.

June 23-24, 1967
The Bolivian Army massacres miners and their families at the Siglo XX mines. This becomes known as the San Juan massacre.

June 26, 1967
The guerrillas ambush army troops at Florida.

July 1, 1967
President Barrientos publicly announces Che Guevara's presence in Bolivia.

July 6, 1967
The guerrillas occupy the town of Sumaipata.

July 26, 1967
Che addresses the guerrilla troops on the significance of the July 26, 1953, attack on the Moncada garrison.

July 31–August 10, 1967
The Organization of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS) conference is held in Havana. The conference supports guerrilla movements throughout Latin America. Che Guevara is elected honorary chair.