ALMOST A YEAR ago today Major Ern esto Che Guevara was murdered in the Bolivian jungle by the military regime of Bolivia. We are informed that CIA representatives were present.
This special issue of The Black Dwarf is devoted entirely to the Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara, which we consider to be an important political do cument. The diaries were first published by Ramparts magazine in the United States and we are making use of their translation. These • diaries were presented to the revolutionary Cuban paying the price for it. The verdict of the military tribunal in Bolivia which is trying him for high treason is a foregone conclusion, but the spirit of internationalism inspired in Latin America by the Cuban revolution Cannot be quelled by legal statutes. It will continue till the last battle has been fought, the last victory won.
A different version of the Diary is being peddled by some publishers in league with those who murdered Che. We spit on them! The blood-money they paid for the Diaries makes them accomplices its extension to the whole of Latin America - an ideal for which Che perished - NOT IN VAIN.
TARIQ ALI EDITOR EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION GROUP: Tariq Ali, Clive Goodwin, Robin Fior, David Mercer, Mo Teitlebaum, Adrian Mitchell, Fred Halliday, Sean Thompson, Roger Tyrrell, Published by THE BLACK DWARF, 7 Carlisle Street, London Wl. Printed by
[A NECESSARY INTRODUCTION By FIDEL CASTRO] write down his drily observations in a personal diary. During the long marches over abrupt and difficult terrain, in the middle of the damp woods, when the lines of men, always hunched over from the weight of their mochilas, munitions and arms would stop for a moment to rest, or when the column would receive orders to halt and pitch camp at the end of a long day's journey, one could see Che-as he was from the beginning affectionately nicknamed by the Cubans-take out his notebook and, with the small and almost illegible letters of a doctor, write his notes. What he was able to conserve from these notes he later used in writing his magnificent historical narrations of the revolutionary war in Cuba. They were of revolutionary content, pedagogic and human.
This time, thanks to his invariable habit of jotting down the principal occurrences of each day, we have at our disposal rigorously exact, priceless and detailed information concerning the heroic final months of his life in Bolivia.
These notations, not exactly written for publication, served him as a working guide in the constant evaluation of the occurrences, the situation and the men. They also served as an expressive outlet for his profoundly observant spirit, analytical but often laced with a fine sense of humor. They are soberly written and contain an uninterrupted coherence from the beginning to the end.
It should be kept in mind that they were written during those rare moments of rest in the middle of an heroic and superhuman physical endeavor—notwithstanding Che's exhausting obligations as chief of a guerrilla detachment in the difficult first stages of a struggle of this nature-which unfolded under incredibly hard material conditions, revealing once more his particular way of working and his will of steel.
In the diary, detailed analyses of the incidents of each day, the faults, criticisms and recriminations which are appropriate to and inevitable in the development of a revolutionary guerrilla are made evident.
In the heart of a guerrilla detachment, these criticisms must take place incessantly, especially when there is only a small nucleus of men, constantly confronted by extremely adverse material conditions and an enemy infinitely superior in number, when a little carelessness or the most insignificant mistake can be fatal and the chief has to be extremely demanding. He must use each occurrence or episode, no matter how insignificant, as a lesson to the combatants and future leaders of new guerrilla detachments.
The formation of a guerrilla is a constant call to the conscience and honor of every man. Che knew how to touch on the most sensitive fibers of the revolutionaries. When Marcos, repeatedly admonished by Che, was warned that he could be dishonorably discharged from the guerrillas, be said, "First I must be shot! Later on he gave his life heroically. The behavior of all the men in wh Che put his confidence and whom he had to admonish for some reason or another during the course of the struggle was similar. He was a fraternal and human chief who also knew how to be exacting and occasionally even severe, but above all, and even more so than with the others, Che was severe with himself. He based the discipline of the guerrilla on their moral conscience and on the tremendous force of his own personal example.
The diary also contains numerous references to Regis Debray and makes evident the enormous preoccupation stirred up in Che by the arrest and imprisonment of the revolutionary writer whom he had made responsible for carrying out a mission in Europe, although in reality he would have preferred Debray to remain in the guerrilla. This is why he manifests a certain inconsistency and occasionally some doubts concerning his behavior.
For Che it was not possible to know of the odyssey lived by Debray and the firm and courageous attitude he took in front of his capturers and torturers while he was in the clutches of the repressive forces.
However, he did emphasize the enormous political importance of Debray's trial, and on the 3rd of October, six days before his death, in the midst of tense and bitter happenings, Che stated: "An interview with Debray was heard, very valiant when faced with a student provocator," this being his last reference to the writer.
Since in this diary the Cuban Revolution and its relation to the guerrilla movement are repeatedly pointed out, some might interpret the fact that its publication on our part constitutes an act of provocation supplying an argument to the enemies of the Revolution-the Yankee imperialists and their cohorts, the Latin American oligarchiesfor redoubling their plans for blockade, isolation of and aggression toward Cuba.
For those who judge the facts in this way it is well to remember that Yankee imperialism has never needed pretexts to perpetrate its villainy in any part of the world and that its efforts to smash the Cuban Revolution began with the first revolutionary law made in our country; for the obvious and well-known fact is that imperialism is the gendarme of the world, systematic promoter of counterrevolution and protector of the most backward and inhuman social structures in the world.
Solidarity with the revolutionary movement might be used as a pretext but shall never be the cause of Yankee aggression. Denying solidarity in order to deny the pretext is ridiculous ostrich-like politics, which has nothing to do with the internationalist character of contemporary social To conco colidarity with the revolutionary Y UBA IS A SMALL economically underdeveloped country, like all those countries dominated and exploited by colonialism and imperialism. It is situated only 90 miles from the United States' coast, having a Yankee naval base on its own territory, and confronts numerous obstacles in the carrying out of its economic and social development. Great dangers have threatened our country since the triumph of the Revolution but not because of this will imperialism succeed in making us yield, since the difficulties which a consequent revolutionary line entails are not important to us.
From the revolutionary point of view, the publication of Che's diary in Bolivia admits no alternative. Che's diary fell into Barrientos' possession who immediately sent copies to the CIA, the Pentagon and the United States government. Newspapermen connected with the CIA had access to the document in Bolivia and have made photostatic copies of it-but with the promise to abstain from publishing it for the moment.
Barrientos' government and his highest military chiefs have abundant reasons for not publishing the diary since it confirms the tremendous incapacity of the Bolivian Army and the innumerable defeats which it suffered at the hands of a small fistful of determined guerrillas who captured almost 200 arms in combat in a few weeks.
Che also describes Barrientos and his regime in terms which they deserve and with words that cannot be erased from history.
On the other hand, imperialism had its reasons: Che and his extraordinary example gain increasing force in the world. His ideas, his image, his name, are the banners of the struggle against the injustices of the oppressed and exploited and stir up a passionate interest on the part of students and intellectuals all over the world.
Right in the United States, members of the Negro movement and the radical students, who are constantly increasing in number, have made Che's figure their own. In the most combative manifestations of civil rights and against the aggression in Vietnam, his photographs are wielded as emblems of the struggle. Few times in history, or perhaps never, has a figure, a name, an example, been so universalized with such celerity and passionate force. This is because Che embodies in its purest and most disinterested form the internationalist spirit which characterizes the world today and which will dó so even more tomorrow.
From a continent oppressed by colonial powers yesterday and exploited and kept down in the most iniquitous underdevelopment by Yankee imperialism today, there surges this singular figure who is converted into the universal breath of the revolutionary struggle, even in the imperialist and colonial metropolises themselves.
The Yankee imperialists fear the force of this example of the diary, the sonality, is as a guerrilla lesson written in the heat and tension of each day. It is inflammable gun powder. It is the real demonstration that Latin American man is not impotent in the face of those who would enslave the peoples with their mercenary armies and who prevented the publication of this diary until now.
It could also be that the pseudorevolutionaries, opportunists and charlatans of every kind who call themselves Marxists, communists, or give themselves any other titles, are interested in keeping the diary from being known. They have not vacillated in qualifying Che as wrong, as an adventurer, and when referring to him in the most benign form, they call him an idealist whose death is the Swan Song of the revolutionary armed struggle in Latin America. "If Che," they exclaim, "the highest exponent of these ideas and an experimented guerrilla fighter, was killed in guerrilla warfare and his movement did not liberate Bolivia, this only demonstrates how wrong he was!" How many of these miserable characters have been happy about the death of Che and haven't even blushed to think that their position and reasoning coincide completely with those of the most reactionary oligarchies and with imperialism!
In this way they justify themselves or justify treacherous leaders who at certain moments have not vacillated in playing a game of armed struggle with the real purpose of destroying the guerrilla detachments, as could be seen later, putting the brake on revolutionary action and asserting their shameful and ridiculous political deals because they were absolutely incapable of any other line; or they justify those who do not want to fight, who will never fight, for the peoples and their liberation and who have caricatured the revolutionary ideas turning them into a dogmatic opium without content or any message for the masses, converting the organizations of the people's struggle into instruments of conciliation with external and internal exploiters and proponents of politics which have nothing to do with the real interest of exploited peoples on this continent.
Che contemplated his death as something natural and probable in the process and tried to emphasize, especially in the last documents, that this eventuality would not impede the inevitable march of the revolution in Latin America. In his message to the Tricontinental Congress, he reiterated this thought: "Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism... wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons."
He considered himself a soldier of this revolution without ever worrving about surviving it. Those who see the end to ens, including the founders of Marxism who were unable to culminate their work and see during their lifetimes the fruits of their noble efforts.
N CuBA, neither the death in combat of Marti and Maceo, later followed by Yankee intervention at the end of the Independence War, frustrating the immediate objective of their struggle, nor of the brilliant proponents of the socialist revolution like Julio Antonio Mella, assassinated by agents at the service of the imperialists, could impede in the long. run the triumph of a process which began 100 years ago. And absolutely no one could doubt the profound justice of the cause and the line of the struggle of those Fathers, nor the actuality of the profound principles which never failed to inspire the Cuban revolutionaries.
From Che's diary it is possible to gather how real the possibilities of success were and how extraordinary the catalyzing power of the guerrilla was. On a certain occasion, in the light of the weakening and rapid deterioration of the Bolivian regime, he said, "The government is disintegrating rapidly; it is a pity we don't have 100 more men right now."
Che knew from his experience in Cuba how often our small guerrilla detachment was on the verge of being extinguished. This could have occurred because of the likelihood of the hazards and imponderabilities of war, but, if we had indeed been extinguished, would it have given the right to anybody to consider our line erroneous or to use this as an example to discourage the revolution and to instill impotency in the people? Many times in history the revolutionary processes have been preceded by adverse episodes! Didn't we in Cuba have the Moncada as an experience almost six years before the final triumph of the armed struggle by the people?
For many, between the 26th of July, 1953—the attack on the Moncada quarters in Santiago de Cuba-and the 5th of December, 1956-the disembarkment of the "Granma" —the revolutionary struggle in Cuba, faced with a modern and well-equipped army, lacked all perspective, and the action of a handful of fighters was viewed as a chimera of idealists and deluded beings "who were profoundly mistaken." The smashing defeat and the total dispersion of the inexpert guerrilla detachment on the 3rd of December, 1956, appeared to confirm completely the pessimistic omens. But only 25 months later, the remains of that guerrilla force had developed the power and acquired the necessary experience to annihilate that army.
In all ages and under all circumstances there will always exist abundant reasons not to fight, but that will be the only way not to obtain liberty. Che did not outlive his ideas, but he fecundated them with his own blood. With all certainty the pseudorevolutionary critics with their political cowardice and their eternal lack of action will survive to evidence their own stupidity.
America, like Mario Monje, wielding the of the Communist Party of Bolivia, pretended to dispute with Che over the political and military position of head of the movement. Furthermore, he alleged his previous intention to resign his party position over that dispute; it seems that according to him it was enough to have had this title to claim such a prerogative.
Mario Monje, naturally, had no guerrilla experience, nor had he ever engaged in battle. Plus the fact that his selfconceived ideas of a Communist should have long since obliged him to dispense with the vulgar and mundane chauvinism overcome by our forefathers in the struggle for the first independence.
With such a concept as to what the anti-imperialist struggle on this continent should be, such "communist chiefs" haven't even surpassed the internationalist level of the aboriginal tribes conquered by European colonizers at the time of the conquest.
Therefore, this chief of the Communist Party did nothing more than enter into shameful, ridiculous and unmerited claims to power, caring not that this was Bolivia, with its historic capital, Sucre, both places named in honor of their first liberators who were Venezuelan, and whose final liberation was the result of the cooperation of the political. military and organizational talent of a true revolutionary titan whose cause furthermore did not know the narrow, artificial and even unjust boundaries of that country.
Bolivia, not having an outlet to the sea, more than any other country needs the revolutionary victory of its neighbors for its own liberation so as not to be exposed to a flagrant blockade. Furthermore, Che was the man who could have accelerated this process, due to his enormous prestige, capacity and experience.
Che had established relations with leaders and militants of the Bolivian Communist Party before the split among them occurred, entreating them to help the revolutionary movement in South America. Some of these militants, with authorization from the Party, worked with him on diverse tasks for several years. A special situation was created when the division within the Party took place, due to the fact that the militants with whom he had been working became part of one group or the other. However, Che did not conceive of the struggle in Bolivia as an isolated fact, but as part of a revolutionary liberation movement which would not delay in extending to other South American countries. It was his purpose to organize a movement devoid of sectarian spirit which would permit the incorporation of all those who wanted to fight for the liberation of Bolivia and the rest of the peoples subjugated by imperialism in Latin America
to visit the camp first, really wasn't the least bit sympathetic toward Later, he invited Moises Guevara, a mining and political leader who left that party in order to cooperate in the formation of another organization, and from which he later withdrew due to disagreements with Oscar Zamora- -another Monje, who had once promised to work with Che on the organization of an armed guerrilla fight in Bolivia, and who later withdrew his commitments and cowardly folded his arms when the hour for action arrived, becoming one of the most poisonous critics in the name of "Marxism-Leninism" after Che's death. Without vacillating, Moises Guevara united with Che as he had agreed to do long before he had arrived in Bolivia, offering his support and giving his life heroically for the revolutionary cause.
The group of Bolivian guerrilla fighters who had remained in Monje's organization until then did likewise. Led by Inti and Coco Peredo, who later proved to be brave and outstanding combatants, they left him and firmly supported Che. But Monje, not satisfied with the outcome, began to sabotage the movement, intercepting well-trained communist militants in La Paz who were going to join the guerrilla. These facts demonstrate that there are men in the revolutionary lines who have all the necessary conditions for fighting and that their development is criminally frustrated only by incapable leaders, charlatans and maneuverers.
HE WAS A MAN who was never personally interested in positions, power or honors, but was firmly convinced that in the revolutionary guerrilla fightthe fundamental form of action for the liberation of the peoples of Latin America, based on the economic, political and social situation of almost all Latin American countries —the military and political command of the guerrilla must be united and that the fight can be led only by the guerrilla and not by comfortable bureaucratic offices in the city. He was not willing to compromise on this point, nor to hand over the command of a guerrilla nucleus- -destined to carry out during its final development a fight of such ample dimensions in South America-to an inexperienced emptyhead with a narrow chauvinist outlook. Che thought that luvinism, which often infects even the revolutionary he diverse countries of Latin America, must be dous and sterile reactionary senti , an African, even a European. Each spilt drop of blood, in any country under whose flag one has not been born, is an experience passed on to those who survive, to be • strueele of his N THE SAME WAY, Che thought that combatants fro different Latin American countries should participate in the guerrilla detachment and that the Bolivian guerrilla should be a school for revolutionaries who would learn in combat. To help him with this task, he wanted to have by his side together with the Bolivians, a small nucleus of experienced guerrilla fighters, almost all of whom had been his comrades in the Sierra Maestra during the revolutionary fight in Cuba, and whose capacity, braveness and spirit of sacrifice were well-known to him. None of these men hesitated in responding to his request, none abandoned him and none gave up.
In the Bolivian campaign, Che acted with the very tenacity, mastery, stoicism and the exemplary attitude which were so characteristic of him. It can be said that being pervaded with the importance of the mission which he had assigned himself, he proceeded with a spirit of irreproachable responsibility at all times. When the guerrilla was careless, he hastened to take it into account, correct it and make note of it in his diary.
Adverse factors unbelievably built up against him; for example: the separation-which should have been for a short time-of part of the guerrilla, in which there was a group of valuable men, some of them sick or convalescent. The loss of contact with each other in a very rough terrain, was prolonged for interminable months and occupied Che's efforts in looking for them. During this period his asthma, which was usually easily controlled with a simple medicine, became a terrible enemy, and without the medicine attacked him unmercifully, converting this into a serious problem due to the fact that the medicines which had been wisely accumulated for the guerrilla were discovered and seized by the enemy. This, together with the annihilation at the end of August of that part of the guerrilla with which contact had been lost, were factors which considerably affected the development of events. But Che, with a will of steel, mastered his physical malaise, and he never slowed down action at any time nor did his spirit fall.
Che had numerous contacts with the peasants. Their character — extremely mistrustful and wary — didn't surprise him, as he knew their mentality perfectly for having dealt with them on other occasions, and he knew that prolonged, patient, arduous work was required to win them over to the cause. But he never harbored any doubt that this would be obtained in the long run.
If the chain of events is followed carefully, it can be devel Coco Peredo, were already beginning to s perspectives as chiefs. It was the ambush of Higueras that created an unsurmountable situation for them, the only successful army action against the detachment which Che commanded, killing the vanguard and wounding several other men in broad daylight when they were moving to a peasant zone with greater political development. This objective isn't written down in the diary, but is known by the survivors. It was undoubtedly dangerous to advance by day along the same route that they had been following for several days because of the inevitable constant contact with the inhabitants of the zone they were crossing for the first time. And there was the obvious certainty that the army would intercept them at any moment. But Che, fully conscious of this, decided to take the risk in order to help the doctor who was in very bad physical condition.
The day before the ambush, he wrote: "We reached Pujio, but there were people who had seen us down below the day before, which means we are being announced ahead of time by way of 'Radio Bemba'l..." "The march with mules is becoming dangerous, but I want the doctor to go as best as possible as he is very weak."
The following day he wrote: "At 13:00 the vanguard left to try to reach Jagüey and to make a decision there about the mules and the doctor." That is to say, he was hunting for a solution for the sick man, so as to abandon that route and to take the necessary precautions. But that very afternoon, before the vanguard reached Jagüey, the fatal ambush that brought about an unbearable situation for the detachment occurred.
Some days later, encircled in the Quebrada del Yuro, his iast combat was fought.
1 HE PROWESS carried out by this handful of revolutionaries is deeply impressing. The fight alone against the hostile environment in which their action took place constitutes an insuperable page of heroism. Never before in history has such a small number of men undertaken such a gigantic task. The faith and the absolute conviction that the immense revolutionary capacity of the peop'es of Latin America could be awakened, and the self-confidence which they gave themselves to this • in Bolivia:
Those that fought with him until the end have become worthy of such honors. They symbolize the type of revolutionaries and men which history is now summoning for a truly hard and difficult task: the revolutionary transformabers during the first fight foe indepe decadent colonial power. The omanies of toda have as their enemy the most powerful bulwark of the imperialist camp, equipped with the most modern techniques and industries. This enemy did not only reorganize and re-equip the Bolivian army — where the people had destroyed the previous military repressive forces —and immediately help with weapons and military assistants for the fight against the guerrillas, but they also offer military and technical aid to the same degree to all the re pressive forces on this continent. And when these measures are not sufficient, they intervene directly with their troops, as they did in Santo Domingo.
To fight against this enemy, the type of revolutionaries and men of which Che spoke are required. Without this type of revolutionaries and men, willing to do what they did; without the spirit to face the great obstacles which they had; without the profound conviction of the justness of their cause and the unyielding faith in the invincible force of the people which they harbored, in the face of a power such as Yankee imperialism, whose military, technical and economic resources are being made felt in the entire world, the liberation of the peoples of this continent will not be achieved.
The North American people themselves, who are becoming conscious of the fact that the monstrous political superstructure which prevails in their country is no longer the idyllic, bourgeois republic established by its founders almost 200 years ago, are undergoing to an ever greater degree the moral barbarousness of an irrational, obsessed, brutal and inhuman system which engulfs ever more victims from among the North American people in its aggressive wars, its political crimes, its racial aberration, its niggardly hierarchy of the human being, and the repugnant squandering of economic, scientific and human resources of its overgrown, reactionary and repressive military apparatus, all this in the middle of a world which is 75 per cent underdeveloped and hungry.
But only the revolutionary transformation of Latin America could permit the people of the United States to settle accounts with imperialism itself, at the same time and at the same rate that the rising struggle of the North American people against imperialist policy could become a decisive ally of the revolutionary struggle in Latin America.
If this part of the hemisphere does not undergo a profound revolutionary transformation, the enormous different and lack of balance which was produced at the beginmperial heights, and the group of weak and thwarted nations in the other Balkanized part of the American continent submissive to the yoke of feudal oligarchies and their reactionary armies, will be but a pale reflection, not of the already great lack of economic, scientific and technical balance which now exists, but of the frightful lack of balance which the imperialist superstructure will impose at an even greater speed on the peoples of Latin America in the next 20 years.
In this way we shall become ever poorer, ever weaker, more dependent upon and enslaved by imperialism. This dark perspective equally affects the underdeveloped coun tries of Asia and Africa.
If the industrialized and well-instructed nations of Europe, with their Common Market and supranational scientific institutions, become perturbed by the possibility of getting left behind and contemplate with fear the perspective of being converted into economic colonies of Yankee imperialism, what does the future have to offer to the peoples of Latin America?
If in the light of this real and unquestionable situation which decisively affects the destiny of our peoples some liberal or bourgeois reformist or pseudorevolutionary charlatan, incapable of action, has an answer that is not a profound and urgent revolutionary transformation and one which could gather together all the moral, material and human forces to launch them forth in this part of the world in order to recover the economic and scientific-technical backwardness of centuries, greater still when compared to the industrialized world of which we are tributaries and will continue to be to an even greater degree, especially of the United States-and furthermore is able to give the formula, the magic way to accomplish this, different from the way conceived by Che, one which can wipe out oligarchies, despots, petty politicians, that is to say, nursemaids, and Yankee monopolies, the masters, and to be able to do it with all the urgency which the situation requires, then let him raise his hand to challenge Che.
Since no one really has an honest answer or a consequent action that implies a real hope for the almost 300 million human beings which compose the population of Latin America, desolatingly poor in the overwhelming majority, and which will reach 600 million within 25 years, who have the right to a material life, to culture and to civilization, the most honest thing to do would be to remain silent in the face of Che's gesture and those who fell by his side, defending their ideas with courage, because the heroic deed carried out by this handful of men, led by the noble ideal of redeeming a continent, will always be the greatest proof of what will power, heroism and human greatness can do. It is their example that will enlighten the consciences and preside at the struggle of the Latin American people, because the heroic cry of Che will reach the receptive ear of the poor and the exploited, for whom he gave his life, and many arms will be outstretched to wield the weapons and to achieve their final liberation.
HE WROTE HIS LAST LINES On the 7th of October. The following day, at 13 hours, in a narrow ravine where he proposed waiting for nightfall in order to break the encirclement, a large enemy troop made contact with them. The reduced number of men of which the detachment was composed on this date fought heroically until dusk-from individual positions located in the bed of the ravine and on the top edges-against the mass of soldiers who had surrounded and attacked them. Among those who fought in positions close to Che, there were no survivors. Since beside him were the doctor (El Medico) in the grave state of health mentioned earlier, and a Peruvian guerrilla, also in bad condition, everything seems to indicate that Che, until wounded, did his utmost to protect the withdrawal of these two comrades to a more secure place. The doctor was not killed during the same battle, but several days later at a not very distant point from the Quebrada der Yuro. The abruptness of the rocky, irregular terrain made visual contact among the guerrilla fighters very difficult and at times impossible. Those defending the position at the other entrance of the ravine several hundred meters from Che, among them Inti Peredo, held off the attack until dusk when they managed to get away from the enemy and leave for the previously agreed point of contact.
It has been established that Che continued fighting despite being wounded until the barrel of his M-2 rifle was destroyed by a shot, rendering it completely useless. The pistol he was carrying had no magazine. These incredible circumstances explain how he could have been captured alive. The wounds in his legs kept him from walking without help, but they were not fatal.
Moved to the town of Higueras, he lived approximately 24 hours more. He refused to exchange words with his captors and a drunken officer who tried to vex him received a slap across the face.
Gathered in La Paz, Barrientos, Ovando and other high military chiefs coldly made the decision to assassinate him. The details of the way they proceeded to carry out the treacherous agreement at the school in the town of Higueras are well-known. Major Miguel Ayoroa and Colonel Andrés Selnich, rangers trained by the Yankees, instructed Officer Mario Terán to proceed with the killing. When the latter, completely drunk, went into the place, Che, who had heard the shots which had just killed a Bolivian and a Peruvian guerrilla fighter, saw that the assassin vacillated, said firmly,
his machine gun from the waist down. The version had allready gote around that Che had died several hours after combat, and therefore his executors had orders not to shoot at his chest or head so as not to induce fatal wounds. This cruelly prolonged Che's agony until a sergeant—also drunk —finally killed him with a pistol shot in his left side. Such a procedure is in brutal contrast to the respect that Che had, without a single exception, for the lives of numerous officials and soldiers of the Bolivian army whom he had taken prisoner.
The final hours of his existence in the power of his despised enemies must have been very bitter for him, but there was no man better prepared than Che to be put to such a test.
The way that the diary came into our hands cannot be divulged at the moment; it is enough to say that it required no monetary remuneration. It contains all the notes he wrote from the 7th of November, 1966, the day Che arrived at Nanchuhuazu, until the 7th of October, 1967, the evening before the combat in the ravine in Yuro. There are only a few pages missing which are not in our hands but they correspond to dates on which nothing of any importance took place, and therefore do not alter the content of the diary in any way.
Although there was no doubt as to the authenticity of the document, all the photostatic copies were submitted to a rigorous examination not only for the purpose of proving the authenticity but also to check on any possible alteration, no matter how small. Furthermore, the dates were compared with the diary of one of the surviving guerrillas, coinciding both documents in all respects. The detailed testimony of the remaining guerrilla survivors who were witnesses to each and every one of the events also contributes to the proof of its authenticity. • The result was reached with absolute certainty that all the photostats were true copies of Che's diary.
It was a fatiguing job to decipher the small and difficult handwriting, a task carried out with the laborious participation of his wife and comrade Aleida March de Guevara.
! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
FIDEL CASTRO ELEVADOR: a particular kind of a mountain terrain suitable for guerrilla activities CAMBA: a native of the eastern region of Bolivia ANTA: American tapir BAGRE: a whiskered river fish, typical of the zone GONDOLA: popular Bolivian term for a bus BORO: a fly which deposits larva when it bites CHOCLO: sweet corn on the cob AYMARA: an Indian of the high plains of Bolivia; his native tongue TATU: armadillo CHACO: land cultivated with fruits and vegetables CHAQUEO: the preparation of land for the growing of fruits and vegetables HUMINTA: rolls made with cornmeal TAPERA: an abandoned Indian hut or a cabin for provisional use SACAMUELA: tooth puller, a humorous term referring to a dentist PALMITO DE COROJO: palm nut PALMITO: palm heart TOTAI: Bolivian term equivalent to the Cuban term "corojo" FIRME: a level stretch at the top of a hill URINA: fawn MOTE: dried corn kernels, boiled without salt CHARQUI: meat dried by the sun ACHACAO: son of the wife; stepson Jocos: winter squash ZAPALLOS: summer squash CACARE: a small mountain bird which announces the arrival of men or animals with its call GUAJIRO: Cuban term for peasant CHANCHO: pig LOCRO: soup made with rice, charqui, potatoes and other root vegetables typical of the eastern region of Bolivia HOCHI: species of rodent YUCA: root vegetable ABARCAS: rustic sandals, brogues COTUDA: having a goiter CHILCHEO: hone rain CHANKAKA: candy made from unrefined sugar CARACORE: Indian term for fig CHUCHIAL: bamboo field RELATION OF PSEUDONYMS THAT APPEAR IN THE DIARY Pachungo: Pacho Tumaini: Tuma Bigotes: El Loro - Jorge Estanislao: El Negro — Mario — Monje* Papi: Ricardo — Chinchu Antonio: Olo Joaquin: Vilo Apolinar: Polo Moro: Morogoro Muganga — El Médico Félix: El Rubio Renán: Iván Pan Divino: Pedro Mauricio: El Pelao - Carlos Chapaco: Luis 4, 5, 8 and 9. February 8 and 9. March 14, April 4 and 5 June 9 and 10. July 4 and 5.
----- pull-quotes -----
NOVIEMBRE, 1966 GLOSSARY
* This should not be confused with the guerrilla of Joaquin's group whose pseudonym is also "Negro." EXPLANATORY NOTE The pages missing in this diary are the following: January