Companero
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†4 Although history and politics are plethoric with acts destined to cover one’s backside for posterity, there is a memo from Walt Rostow to Lyndon Johnson, dated October 11, at 10:30 a.m., that apparently corroborates U.S. innocence: “The latest information is that Guevara was taken alive. After a short interrogation to establish his identity, General Ovando—Chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces—ordered him shot. I regard this as stupid, but it is understandable from a Bolivian standpoint.” Walt Rostow, Memorandum to the President, October 11, 1967 (Secret).
*7 Felix Rodríguez and John Weisman, Shadow Warrior (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), pp. 160, 164–165. According to Rodríguez’s sworn, secret statement to the CIA Inspector General on June 3, 1975, released in the course of the agency’s historical review program: “Rodríguez prepared a 100-word message … in code reporting Guevara’s capture and asking that an Embassy representative be sent to the area to prevail upon the Bolivians to spare Guevara’s life, since he did not believe that he could succeed in doing so. This message was prepared for the scheduled 10 a.m. transmission of 9 October, and was not transmitted to the relay point in Asunción, Paraguay, until about 10:30 a.m., after Rodríguez arrived in Higueras [sic] and set up his radio transmitter, an RS-48.” According to Rodríguez, the message took a long time to reach the U.S. because the relay operator in Paraguay refused to keep the transmission frequency open. By the time it got to the U.S., Che was dead. Felix Rodríguez, interview.
*8 Gary Prado Salmón, interview with the author, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, October 26, 1994. This is also Benigno’s view: “I do not think he wanted to die.” Benigno, interview.
*9 In the files at the LBJ Library concerning Che’s capture and death, there is a two-line unclassified note from Walt Rostow to Lyndon Johnson saying: “I am told you asked Covey Oliver [a Latin America staffer at the State Department at the time] if it were true that the Bolivians had cremated the body of Che Guevara. CIA has told State that is the case.” Rostow, Memorandum, The White House, October 13, 1967, 6:15 p.m.
†5 Felix Rodríguez has also stated “categorically” that the body was buried. Felix Rodríguez, interview, op. cit. Benigno also is absolutely certain that Che’s body was buried, and believes Lino, or Angel Braguer, as well as a priest in Vallegrande, know where. Benigno, interview with the author, Paris, March 7, 1996.
Notes
Prologue
1. Gary Prado Salmon, interview with the author, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, October 26, 1994.
2. Ernesto Che Guevara, Escritos y discursos, vol. 9 (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977), p. 391.
Chapter 1:
Childhood, Youth, and Asthma in Argentina
1. Carmen Córdova Itúrburu, interview with the author, Buenos Aires, August 21, 1996.
2. Ibid.
3. Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo el Che (Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1981), p. 112.
4. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Economic History of Latin America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 104, 107.
5. Ercilia Guevara Lynch, quoted in Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Ernestito: Vivo y presente: Iconografia testimoniada de la infancia y la juventud de Ernesto Che Guevara, 1928–1953 (Havana: Editora Política, 1989), p. 9.
6. Roberto Guevara, quoted in Claudia Korol, El Che y los argentinos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Dialectica, 1988), p. 32.
7. Dolores Moyano Martín, interview with the author, Washington, D.C., February 26, 1996.
8. Celia de la Serna, interview in Granma (Havana), October 16, 1967, p. 8.
9. Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo, p. 148.
10. Rosendo Zacarías, interview with the author, Alta Gracia, February 17, 1995.
11. Elba Rossi Oviedo Zelaya, interview with the author, Alta Gracia, February 17, 1995.
12. Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo, p. 186.
13. Ibid., p. 201.
14. Ahmed Ben Bella, interview with the author, Geneva, November 4, 1995.
15. Tomás Granado, interview with the author, Caracas, March 13, 1995.
16. Colegio Nacional Deán Funes y Liceo de Señoritas, Ernesto Guevara, report card, 1945, reproduced in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 100.
17. Alberto Granado, interview in Página 12 (Buenos Aires), July 3, 1994, p. 28.
18. Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 100.
19. Tomás Granado, interview.
20. Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo, p. 217.
21. Carmen Córdova Itúrburu, interview.
22. Katherine Maldonado, interview with the author, New York, February 29, 1996.
23. Ibid.
24. Carmen Córdova Itúrburu, interview.
25. Juan Martín Guevara de la Serna, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 97.
26. Fernando Córdova Itúrburu, interview with the author, Buenos Aires. August 22, 1996.
27. This version of the anecdote is quoted directly from Alberto Granado, “Mis encuentros con el Che,” unpublished manuscript made available to the author, undated, p. 4.
28. Roberto Guevara de la Serna, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 111.
29. Fernando Córdova Itúrburu, interview.
Chapter 2:
Years of Love and Indifference in Buenos Aires:
Medical School, Perón, and Chichina
1. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, “Inaugural Address at the Indoctrination Course Given at the Ministry of Public Health,” August 19, 1960, in Ernesto Che Guevara, Escritos y discursos, vol. 4 (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977), p. 175.
2. Alberto Granado, quoted in Claudia Korol, El Che y los argentinos (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Dialéctica, 1988), p. 60.
3. Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo el Che (Madrid: Editorial Planeta, 1981), p. 339.
4. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, December 5, 1951.
5. Alberto Granado, Con el Che Guevara de Córdoba a la Habana (Córdoba: Op Oloop Ediciones, 1995), p. 42.
6. Alberto Granado, “Mis encuentros con el Che,” unpublished manuscript lent to the author, undated, p. 18.
7. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, February 1, 1951.
8. Horacio Daniel Rodríguez, Che Guevara: ¿Aventura o revolución? (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 1968), p. 39.
9. Relevant sources include: Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo el Che and Aquí va un soldado de América (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana/Planeta, 1987); Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Cálida presencia: Cartas de Ernesto Guevara de la Serna a Tita Infante (Santiago de Cuba: Editorial Oriente, 1995) and Un hombre bravo (Havana: Editorial Capitán San Luis, 1994); and Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Ernestito: Vivo y presente (Havana: Editora Política, 1989).
10. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, quoted in Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 86
11. Ana María Guevara de la Serna, quoted in Korol, El Che, p. 67.
12. Korol, El Che, p. 70; and Carlos Ferrer, telephone interview with the author, Buenos Aires, August 23, 1996.
13. Chichina Ferreyra, interview with the author, Malagueño, February 18, 1995.
14. Ernesto Guevara Lynch, interview given to Esteban Morales and Fabián Ríos, in Comandante Che Guevara (Buenos Aires: Cuadernos de América Latina, 1968), p. 5.
15. Cupull and González, Cálida presencia, p. 77.
16. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, September 24, 1955, in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 109.
17. Ibid., p. 110.
18. Ibid.
19. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Beatriz Guevara Lynch, quoted in Korol, El Che, p. 70.
20. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 110.
21. Tulio Halperín Donghi, La larga agonía de la Argentina peronista (Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1994), p. 26.
22. Ibid.
23. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Angustia (eso es cierto),” Primer Piano (Buenos Aires), August 2, 1
992. The text was released for publication by Ana María Erra, Che’s father’s widow.
24. Berta Gilda Infante, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 117.
25. Ferreyra, interview.
26. Roberto Guevara de la Serna, quoted in Korol, El Che, p. 76.
27. Fernando Córdova Itúrburu, interview with the author, Buenos Aires, August 23, 1996.
28. Carlos Figueroa, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 76.
29. Cupull and González, Cálida presencia, p. 9.
30. Ibid., p. 15.
31. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to Dolores Moyano Martín, Malagueño, January 4, 1968.
32. Ibid.
33. Ferreyra, interview.
34. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, February 1, 1951.
35. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to Dolores Moyano Martín, January 4, 1968.
36. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, February 1, 1951.
37. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, December 5, 1951.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Ferreyra, interview.
41. José Aguilar, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 135.
42. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Ernesto Guevara Lynch, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Mi hijo, p. 334.
43. Ernesto Che Guevara, quoted in Korol, El Che, p. 81.
44. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Beatriz Guevara Lynch, quoted in Cupull and González, Un hombre bravo, p. 22.
45. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to Dolores Moyano Martín, January 4, 1968.
46. Ibid.
47. Ernesto Che Guevara, Mi primer gran viaje: de la Argentina a Venezuela en motocicleia (Buenos Aires: Seix Barral, 1994), pp. 50–51.
48. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to the author, August 22, 1996.
49. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Chichina Ferreyra, March 1952.
Chapter 3:
First Blood:
Navigating Is Necessary, Living Is Not
1. This idea derives from conversations and letters, always valuable, with Enrique Hett at Dartmouth College and in Paris, March and November 1996.
2. Ernesto Che Guevara, Mi primer gran viaje: de la Argentina a Venezuela en motocicleta (Buenos Aires: Seix Barral, 1994), p. 100.
3. Ibid., p. 76.
4. Ibid., pp. 86–87.
5. Ibid., pp. 91–92.
6. Ibid., p. 100.
7. Ibid., p. 101.
8. Ibid., p. 103.
9. Ibid., p. 109.
10. Ibid., p. 143.
11. An episode masterfully described by Alberto Granado, Con el Che por Sudamérica (Havana: Editorial Letras Cubanas), p. 103.
12. Guevara, Viaje, p. 115.
13. Ibid., p. 174.
14. Ernesto Che Guevara, “Machu Picchu: Enigma de piedra en América,” Revista de Casa de las Américas (Havana), vol. 28, no. 163, July–August 1987, p. 51.
15. Ibid., p. 53.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., p. 51.
18. Jean Cormier, Che Guevara (Paris: Editions du Rocher, 1995), p. 53.
19. Quoted in Alberto Granado, “Mis encuentros con el Che,” unpublished manuscript lent to the author, p. 88.
20. Guevara, Viaje, p. 171.
21. Granado, Con el Che, pp. 131, 133, 134, 135.
22. Ibid., p. 199. The passages reproduced at the end of the book seem to have been taken directly from Ernesto’s unrevised diary.
23. This passage comes from a letter to Che’s mother but is not included in his journal. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, July 6, 1952, quoted in Ernesto Che Guevara, Viaje, p. 208.
24. Guevara, Viaje, p. 212.
25. Ibid., p. 182.
26. Granado, Con el Che, p. 235.
27. Jimmy Roca, quoted in Primera Plana (Buenos Aires), October 17, 1967, p. 29.
28. Tita Infante, “Testimonio argentino,” reprinted in Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Aquí va un soldado de América (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana/Planeta, 1987), p. 168.
29. Guevara, Viaje, p. 20.
30. This omission was noted by Lawrence Whitehead in his review of the English version of Che’s travel journal. Lawrence Whitehead, “Furibundo de la Serna,” London Review of Books, November 2, 1995, p. 20.
31. Guevara, Viaje, p. 187. Several people who have reviewed these passages from the diary and who knew Che from those years have expressed doubts as to their authenticity. The person they knew simply does not jibe with the writing. This is Chichina Ferreyra’s opinion, for example, as suggested to the author in a letter dated August 22, 1996.
32. Ibid.
33. Alberto Granado, quoted by I. Lavretsky (Josef Grigulevich), Ernesto Che Guevara (Moscow: Progress Publishers), p. 38.
34. Celia de la Serna Guevara, interview with Julia Constenla, Bohemia (Havana), August 27, 1971, p. 33.
35. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to the author, March 7, 1996.
36. Chichina Ferreyra, letter to Dolores Moyano Martín, January 4, 1968.
37. Ibid.
38. Domingo Granata, quoted in Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Ernestito, Vivo y presente (Havana: Editora Política, 1989), p. 167.
39. Ibid.
40. José Aguilar, quoted in Granma (Havana), October 16, 1967.
41. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Tita Infante, November 29, 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 80.
42. Jorge Ferrer, letter to the author, Philadelphia, March 15, 1996.
43. Matilde Lezica, quoted in Cupull and González, Ernestito, p. 172.
44. Isaías Nougués, letter to the author, Buenos Aires, March 29, 1996.
45. Carlos Ferrer, telephone interview with the author, Buenos Aires/Gualaguaches, August 25, 1996.
46. Mario Monje, interview with the author, Moscow, November 1, 1995.
47. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Ernesto Guevara Lynch, July 24, 1953, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 15.
48. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Tita Infante, September 3, 1953, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, pp. 21–22.
49. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, undated, quoted in Jean Cormier, Che Guevara (Paris: Editions du Rocher, 1995), p. 71.
50. Carlos Ferrer, letter to Ernesto Guevara Lynch, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 13.
51. Ricardo Rojo, Mi amigo el Che (Buenos Aires: Editorial Legasa, 1985; first edition, 1968), p. 33.
52. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, “Notas de su segundo diario de viaje,” quoted in María del Carmen Ariet, Che: Pensamiento político (Havana: Editora Política, 1988), p. 41. Ariet worked as a sort of secretary to Che’s widow, Aleida March, and had access to several texts by Che unpublished at the time, and others which remain so. The unpublished works she refers to all seem authentic.
53. Ibid., p. 40.
54. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Beatriz Guevara Lynch, December 10, 1953, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 29.
55. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, “Notas,” in Claudia Korol, El Che y los argentinos (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Dialéctica, 1988), p. 96.
56. Hilda Gadea, Che Guevara: Años decisivos (Mexico City: Aguilar, 1972), p. 22.
57. Rojo, Mi amigo, p. 60.
58. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Economic History of Latin America Since Independence (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 312.
59. François Chevalier, L’Amérique Latine de l’indépendance à nos jours (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1977), p. 218.
60. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Ana María de la Serna, January 15, 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 34.
61. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 50.
62. Hilda Guevara Gadea, interview with the author, Havana, February 15, 1995.
63. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Gu
evara, April 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 53.
64. Gadea, Años decisivos, p. 58.
65. Ibid., p. 116.
66. Ibid., p. 119.
67. Hugo Gambini, El Che Guevara (Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós, 1968), p. 99.
68. Oleg Daroussenkov, interview with the author, San Diego, January 16, 1996.
69. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Ana María Guevara de la Serna, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 36.
70. Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Calida presencia: Cartas de Ernesto Guevara de la Serna a Tita Infante (Santiago de Cuba: Editorial Oriente, 1995), p. 53.
71. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, May 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 49.
72. Ibid., p. 56.
73. Ibid.
74. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara. July 4, 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 57.
75. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Tita Infante, quoted in Cupull and González, Cálida presencia, p. 60.
76. Rojo, Mi amigo, pp. 68, 72.
77. Gadea, Años decisivos, pp. 71–73.
78. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, December 28, 1953, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 31.
79. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Celia de la Serna de Guevara, July 4, 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 58, and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Beatriz Guevara Lynch, July 22, 1954, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 59.
80. Celia de la Serna de Guevara, interview with Julia Constenla, Bohemia (Havana), August 27, 1961, p. 33.
81. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, letter to Beatriz Guevara Lynch, October 7, 1955, quoted in Guevara Lynch, Aquí va, p. 114.
82. Gadea, Años decisivos, p. 29.
83. Rolando Morán, unpublished interview with Francis Pisani, provided to the author by Pisani, Mexico, November 18, 1985.
84. Hilda Gadea, interview with Cuba’s Office of Historical Affairs, published in Granma (Havana), October 16, 1967.