Read The Bolivian Diary Online
Authors: Ernesto Che Guevara
The Bolivian Diary (25 page)
An Argentine radio station broadcast the news of 87 victims at the mining area of Siglo XX;
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the Bolivian stations are silent about the number. My asthma continues to grow worse and now it will not let me sleep well.
Altitude = 780 meters.
A bad day for me. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and I had sent five men to relieve those in the ambush along the road to Florida when shots were heard. We went there quickly on horseback and found a strange spectacle: amid total silence, the bodies of four young soldiers were lying in the sun on the sand by the river. We could not take their weapons because we did not know where the enemy was; it was 17:00
and we waited for nightfall to recover their weapons; Miguel sent word that he heard sounds of breaking branches to our left; Antonio and Pacho went to see, but I gave the order not to shoot if they saw nothing. Almost immediately shooting was heard all around and I ordered a retreat, as we were at a disadvantage under those conditions. The withdrawal was delayed and we got news of two wounded: Pombo in his leg and Tuma in his abdomen. We carried them quickly to the house to operate on them the best we could. Pombo's wound is superficial and will just cause headaches because of his lack of mobility. Tuma's wound destroyed his liver and produced intestinal perforations; he died during the operation. With his death, I have lost an inseparable compañero of recent years, one whose loyalty was unwavering and whose absence I feel now almost as if he were my own son. As he died, he asked that his watch be given to me, but this was not done immediately as they were busy tending to him; so he took it off himself and gave it to Arturo. The gesture revealed his wish that it be given to his son whom he had never met, as I had done before with the watches of fallen compañeros. I will wear it for the rest of the war. We loaded his body onto an animal and we will take it to be buried away from here.
We have taken prisoner two new spies: a
carabinero
lieutenant and a
carabinero.
They were lectured and set free wearing only their underwear, due to a misinterpretation of my orders, which were to take everything from them that we could use. We left with nine horses.
After carrying out the painful task of burying Tuma in a badly
made grave, we traveled on, reaching the center of TejerÃa during the day. The vanguard set off at 14:00 on a 15-kilometer expedition and we left at 14:30. The trip took longer for those at the rear, who were caught by nightfall and had to wait for the moon; by 2:30 they made it to the house in Paliza, where the guides were from.
Altitude = 850 meters.
We left two animals with the owner of the house in TejerÃa, who is the nephew of the old woman Paniagua, so that he could return them to her.
We found a guide who for $40 offered to take us to the junction of the road that goes to Don Lucas's
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house, but we stayed in a house that we came across first that had a water hole. We left late. The last ones to leave, Moro and Ricardo, took an outrageous amount of time to get started and I missed the news. We covered an average of one kilometer per hour. According to different military broadcasts, or some radio station acting on its own, there were three killed and two wounded in an encounter with guerrillas in the Mosquera area; this must be a reference to our battle, but we sawâwith almost absolute certaintyâfour bodies, unless one played dead perfectly.
The house of a certain Zea was not occupied but had several cows whose calves were fenced in.
Altitude = 1,150 meters.
I had strong words with Moro and Ricardo about the delay, especially Ricardo. Coco and DarÃo from the vanguard, along with Moro, set off with their backpacks loaded onto the horses. Ãato carried his own because he was in charge of all the animals. My backpack and Pombo's were loaded on a mule. Pombo traveled fairly easily on a lowland mare. We put him up at Don Lucas's house on the summit at an altitude of 1,800 meters; he was there with his two daughters, one of whom has a goiter. There are two other houses: one belongs to a seasonal worker, who has almost nothing, and the other is well-stocked. The night was rainy and cold. Reports suggest that Barchelón is a half-day walk away, but according to the peasants who have come that way, the path is in very poor condition. The owner of the house disagrees and assures us that the trail can be cleared easily. Peasants who came to see the person at the other house were detained because they might be suspicious.
On the way, I had a talk with our troops, now consisting of 24 men. I added Chino to our list of exemplary men; I explained the significance of our losses, and the personal loss that the death of Tuma meant to me, as I had viewed him almost like a son. I criticized the lack of self-discipline and the slowness of the march and promised to give them some ideas so that in future ambushes we could avoid what had just happenedâneedless loss of life due to a failure to abide by norms.
The old man Lucas gave us some information about his neighbors, from which we gather that the army has already started preparations in this area. One of his neighbors, Andulfo
DÃaz, is the general secretary of the peasants' union in this regionâa union that is pro-Barrientos; the other is an old chatterbox whom we let go because he is paralyzed; another is a coward who might talk, according to his colleagues, to avoid complications. The old man promised to accompany us and to help us clear the way to Barchelón; the two peasants will follow us. We spent the day resting; anyway, it was rainy and unpleasant.
In the political arena, the most important development is the official announcement by Ovando
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that I am here. Moreover, he said that the army is facing a perfectly trained guerrilla force that includes the Vietcong commanders who have defeated the best US regiments. His information is based on statements made by Debray who apparently talked more than was necessary, although we cannot tell what implications this has, or what the circumstances were under which he talked. It is also rumored that Loro was murdered. They attribute to me a plan for insurrection in the mines, to coincide with the one in Ãacahuazú. Things are turning out beautifully, so very shortly, I will no longer be “Fernando Sacamuelas” [Tooth-puller].
A message was received from Cuba reporting on the low level of development of the guerrilla movement in Peru, where they scarcely have any men or weapons, but have spent a fortune and are talking of a supposed guerrilla force involving Paz Estenssoro, a colonel Seoane, and a certain Rubén Julio, a very rich man belonging to the movement in the Panda region; this will take place in Guayaramerin. It is the
[illegible in the original].
The negative points are the impossibility of making contact with JoaquÃn and the gradual loss of men, each of which constitutes a serious defeat, although the army does not know this. We have had two skirmishes this month, causing the army four dead and three wounded, according to their own information.
The most important features are:
1)
Continued total lack of contact, which reduces us now to 24 men, with Pombo wounded and with reduced mobility.
2)
Continued lack of peasant recruitment. It is a vicious circle: to recruit we need to maintain constant activity in populated territory, and to do this we need more people.
3)
The legend of the guerrilla force is growing like wildfire, now we are invincible superhumans.
4)
The lack of contact extends to the party, although we have made an attempt through Paulino that could bring results.
5)
Debray is still in the news but now he is linked with my case, and I have been identified the leader of the movement. We will see the result of this move by the government and if it is positive or negative for us.
6)
The morale of the guerrilla fighters continues to be strong and their commitment to the struggle is increasing. All the Cubans are exemplary in combat and there are only two or three weak Bolivians.
7)
The army continues to be useless in its military tactics, but is doing work among the peasants that we cannot ignore, transforming all members of the community into
informers, either through fear or by fooling them about our goals.
8)
The massacre in the mines greatly improves our outlook; if we can get our statement circulated, it will be a great clarifying factor.
Our most urgent task is to reestablish contact with La Paz, to replenish our military and medical supplies, and to recruit 50 to 100 men from the city, even if the number of active combatants comes to only 10 or 25.
1
.
Gregorio Vargas, a peasant who was a guide for the guerrilla force.
2
.
In Bolivia a woman's son is called the stepson of the man.
3
.
Quechua soup made with rice,
charqui,
potatoes, and vegetables in the eastern region of Bolivia.
4
.
Playa
refers to a broad open sandy area along the river.
5
.
Birthday of his youngest daughter Celia Guevara March.
6
.
Species of rodent common in eastern Bolivia.
7
.
Paulino Baigorria, a 20-year-old peasant who served as a liaison for the guerrilla force and requested to join it. While completing a mission for Che, he was arrested in Comarapa, held incommunicado, and tortured.
8
.
Birthday of his mother, Celia de la Serna.
9
.
Paulino was on his way with the message for Cochabamba when he was intercepted and arrested.
10
.
Mining region of Bolivia where a massacre by the Bolivian Army took place, killing 87 people, including women and children, on June 24, 1967. This became known as the Massacre of San Juan.
11
.
Don Lucas was a Bolivian peasant who cooperated with the guerrillas.
12
.
Alfredo Ovando Candia, commander in chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces at that time.
July 1
Without waiting for the weather to clear up completely, we started out for BarchelónâBarcelona on the map. The old man Lucas gave us a hand in clearing the path, but, everything considered, it was still quite steep and slippery. The vanguard left in the morning and we set off at noon, spending the entire afternoon climbing up and down the ravine. We had to stop to sleep at the first farm we came to, separated from the vanguard, which went on ahead. There were three children with the last name of Yépez, extremely shy.
Barrientos held a press conference in which he acknowledged my presence, but predicted that in a few days I would be wiped out. He spoke his usual stream of nonsense, calling us rats and snakes and repeated his intention to punish Debray.
Altitude = 1,550 meters.
We detained a peasant named Andrés Coca, whom we ran into on the path, and we took another two along with us: Roque and his son Pedro.
In the morning we caught up with the vanguard, which had camped on the hill at the house of Don Nicomedes Arteaga,
where there is an orange grove, and they sold us some cigarettes. The main house is down below, beside the Piojera River, and we went there and ate lavishly. The Piojera River runs through a narrow canyon, and travels along it to Angostura is only possible on foot; the exit is toward the Junction, another point on the same river, but one has to cross a rather steep hill to get there. The Junction is important because it is a crossroads. This place is only 950 meters in altitude and more temperate; here
mariguÃs
replace the ticks. The settlement consists of Arteaga's house and those of some of his children; they have a small coffee plantation where people from different neighboring areas come to sharecrop. Right now there are six farmhands from the San Juan area.
Pombo's leg is not improving fast enough, probably due to the interminable trips on horseback, but there are no complications, nor fear of any at this point.
