Che Guevara (128 page)

Alberto Granado did not recall meeting anyone of this person’s description during their journey. He was mystified at the notion that Ernesto had such thoughts so long before his adoption of Marxism became known to his friends and family.

Chapter 9
, page 140:
A number of men whose careers were to become enmeshed with Ernesto Guevara’s emerged out of Operation Success. Among them was Daniel James. As the editor and chief Latin American correspondent of the anticommunist weekly
New Leader
, James was involved in the U.S. media campaign against Arbenz. In mid-1954 he wrote
Red Design for the Americas
, a book that lobbied for the overthrow of the Arbenz government. According to the authors of
Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala
, James’s forceful arguments that Communists were in control of Guatemala were “so convincing” that the CIA bought hundreds of copies of the book and distributed them to American journalists and other “opinion molders.” In 1968, James was given exclusive access to publish the documents captured by the CIA that belonged to Che’s guerrillas in Bolivia, including Che’s diary. He followed up this book a year later with a highly caustic biography of Che. Che’s original diary is in Bolivia’s central bank, in La Paz.

Chapter 13
, page 184:
Miguel Sánchez later turned against Castro. I met him in 1997, when I was promoting the first edition of this book. Sánchez appeared in a bookstore and identified himself. He carried a cloth bag, out of which he pulled a large, framed black-and-white close-up photograph of Che’s amputated hands. The fingertips were black with ink. He explained that the picture had been given to him by his “good friend” Felix Rodríguez, the Cuban-American former CIA agent who was present at Che’s execution in Bolivia in 1967. Rodríguez had autographed the picture and added a personal note to Sánchez.

Chapter 15
, page 227:
Che examined a document brought by the National Directorate visitors outlining the July 26 Movement’s ideological platform. He was guardedly impressed. “In it, a series of quite advanced revolutionary decrees were proposed,” he wrote, “although some were very lyrical, such as the announcement that no diplomatic relations would be established with
the [Latin] American dictatorships.” He was probably referring to the latest issue of
Revolución
, the clandestine organ published by Carlos Franqui, a former Communist who worked as a journalist in Havana and secretly handled underground propaganda for the July 26 Movement. The February 1957 issue of
Revolución
carried an article, “Necessity for Revolution,” extracted from a draft pamphlet titled
Nuestra Razón
. Franqui had commissioned the manuscript from Mario Llerena, a political writer, intending it to become “The Manifesto-Program” of the July 26 Movement. In the article, the “Revolution” was described as: “A continuous historic process. ... The Revolution is struggling for the complete transformation of Cuban life, for profound modifications in the system of property and for a change in institutions. ... In accordance with its goals, and as a consequence of the historic, geographic, and sociological reality of Cuba, the Revolution is democratic, nationalist, and socialist.”

When
Nuestra Razón
was published a few months later, Fidel distanced himself from it, evidently anxious to avoid any ideological pronouncements that might alienate potential July 26 adherents.

Chapter 17
, page 281:
In his letter to Daniel (published in Carlos Franqui’s
Diary of the Cuban Revolution
), Che wrote, “Because of my ideological background, I belong to those who believe that the solution of the world’s problems lies behind the so-called iron curtain, and I see this Movement as one of the many inspired by the bourgeoisie’s desire to free themselves from the economic chains of imperialism. I always thought of Fidel as an authentic leader of the leftist bourgeoisie, although this image is enhanced by personal qualities of extraordinary brilliance that set him above his class. I began the struggle with that spirit: honestly without any hope of going further than the liberation of the country; and fully prepared to leave when the conditions of the later struggle veered all the action of the Movement toward the right (toward what all of you represent). What I never counted on was the radical change in his basic ideas in order to accept the Miami Pact. It had seemed impossible, and I later found out that it was. ... Fortunately, Fidel’s letter arrived during the intervening period ... and it explained how what we can call a betrayal came about.”

As to the issue of supplies, he said, neither he nor Fidel was getting what was needed quickly enough, and so he would continue to make his own arrangements. His main supplier might be a “shady character,” but he considered himself capable of dealing with him without risk.
He
did not compromise his values, he told Daniel pointedly, unlike those who had gone along with the Miami Pact, where “all that happened was that an ass was yielded up in what was probably the most detestable act of ‘buggery’ in
Cuban history. My name in history (which I mean to earn by my conduct) cannot be linked with that crime, and I hereby put that on record. ... If this letter pains you because you consider it unfair or because you consider yourself innocent of the crime and you want to tell me so, terrific. And if it hurts you so much that you cut off relations with this part of the revolutionary forces, so much the worse.”

Four days later, Daniel responded in an eloquent rebuttal of his own; he too was writing to leave “proof of his revolutionary integrity.” As for keeping Che’s letter private, as Che had requested, Daniel informed him that he had shared it with the rest of the Directorate; Che could therefore consider his reply as coming from all of them. “I am not the slightest bit interested in where you situate me, nor will I even try to make you change your personal opinion of us. ... Now is not the time to be discussing ‘where the salvation of the world lies.’ ... Our fundamental differences are that we are concerned about bringing the oppressed peoples of ‘our America’ governments that respond to their longing for Liberty and Progress. ... We want a strong America, master of its own fate, an America that can stand up proudly to the United States, Russia, China, or any other power that tries to undermine its economic and political independence. On the other hand, those with your ideological background think the solution to our evils is to free ourselves from the noxious ‘Yankee’ domination by means of a no less noxious ‘Soviet’ domination.”

Chapter 17
, page 285
: After the rebels’ victory in 1959,
Revolución
became a daily newspaper and
Lunes de Revolución
was edited by the novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Both Cabrera Infante and Carlos Franqui eventually fell out with Castro and went into exile.
Revolución
was closed down.

Chapter 18
, page 304:
By divulging details of the sierra-llano dispute in his article, published just before he left Cuba, Che broke silence on a topic that had been officially taboo since the revolutionary triumph. In it, Che chose to skip over Faustino Pérez’s disagreement with the decisions reached at the May summit, and to give the impression that the rift had been definitively settled.

It must be remembered that at the time Che wrote his article, not only were he and Faustino on the “same side,” but Faustino was also a prominent member of Cuba’s revolutionary leadership, and their past differences had become as irrelevant as they were inconvenient to rehash extensively in public.

Faustino Pérez’s later career showed that in addition to his other virtues enumerated by Che, he was an inveterate survivor. The former opponent of Fidel’s caudillismo became one of the grand viziers of
fidelismo;
the former anticommunist became a member of the Central Committee of the
reconstituted Cuban Communist Party when it was officially inaugurated by Fidel in 1965, and remained a leading apparatchik until his death in 1993.

Chapter 18
, page 313:
In his letter, Fidel warned Raúl, “We must consider the possibility that elements of the dictatorship, exploiting this incident, are hatching a plan for physical aggression against North American citizens; given Batista’s hopeless situation, this would turn international public opinion against us, as it would react with indignation to the news, for example, that several of those North Americans had been murdered by the rebels. It is essential to declare categorically that we do not utilize the system of hostages, however justified our indignation may be against the political attitudes of any government. ... You must keep in mind that in matters that can have weighty consequences for the Movement, you cannot act on your own initiative, or go beyond certain limits without any consultation. Besides, that would give the false impression of complete anarchy in the inner circles of our army.” (From Franqui’s
Diary of the Cuban Revolution
.)

Chapter 19
, page 324:
By the end of 1958, Che had already recruited or was acquainted with most of his future guerrilla comrades. Eliseo Reyes, later “Rolando”; Carlos Coello, aka “Tuma”; Orlando “Olo” Pantoja, later “Antonio”; and Manuel Hernández Osorio, aka “Miguel,” were all with him on the march to Las Villas. Also, Harry Villegas, “Pombo,”one of his bodyguards, and Leonardo Tamayo, “Urbano,” in El Vaquerito’s “Suicide Squad.” The third Cuban survivor of the Bolivia campaign, Dariel “Benigno” Alarcón Ramírez, was with Camilo’s invasion column, as was Antonio “Pinares” Sánchez. José María “Papi” Martínez and Octavio de la Concepción Pedraja, “El Moro,” were with Raúl in Oriente. Juan Vitalio Acuña, aka “Joaquín” in Bolivia, had stayed behind in the Sierra Maestra and been made a
comandante
by Fidel. Three more future fighters would soon join Che in the Escambray: Alberto Fernández Montes de Oca, “Pachungo”; Gustavo “Alejandro” Machín de Hoed; and Jesús “Rubio” Suárez Gayol.

Chapter 23
, page 443
: The story of how the Korda photograph of Che came to be disseminated so widely is complicated. It was not used in
Revolución
to illustrate the article about the
La Coubre
rally, but it appeared months later, printed quite small, in an advertisement for a conference that Che was to speak at. Korda certainly gave a copy of the photo to Feltrinelli in 1967, before Che died, and Feltrinelli reproduced it as a black-and-white poster for the October 1967 Frankfurt Book Fair. Feltrinelli is said to have been trying to get attention for Che’s plight (he was then fighting a losing battle in Bolivia) and thus save his life, but Che was killed that month, three days before the opening of the book fair, in fact.

It seems, however, that reproductions of the Korda photo began to appear in various versions some months before the fall of 1967. It was apparently used on posters in Havana in May 1967, at the Salon de Mayo, which was attended by many French artists, and also in July, for a conference of the Organization of Latin American Solidarity. In Europe, it appeared in the August 19, 1967, edition of
Paris Match
, illustrating a story by Jean Lartéguy about Che that asked the question, “Where is he now?”

The version of the image that became most widespread is based on a black-on-red graphic by the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, who said that he got the photograph itself from some Dutch activists who may or may not have gotten it from Jean-Paul Sartre. Fitzpatrick said he also saw the photo in
Stern
. He made many versions of the image, first in 1967, apparently completely independently of the Feltrinelli poster. It was a version of Fitzpatrick’s version that became the banner for the 1968 student demonstrations and then was taken up by innumerable T-shirt manufacturers. Fitzpatrick’s version is also the model for the mysterious “Warhol Che,” a nine-panel silk screen that is not by Warhol. The author of that version remains unidentified. In February 1968, the American journal
Evergreen
published on its cover a painting by Paul Davis based on the popart graphic versions of the Korda picture. That image was used on the cover of the first edition of this book and on many subsequent editions.

The most complete accounts of the journey of the Korda image are in Trisha Ziff’s
Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon
(Abrams, 2006) and Michael Casey’s
Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image
(Vintage, 2009).

Chapter 25
, page 507:
Myrna Torres, the friend of Ernesto and Hilda Gadea during their days in Guatemala, moved to Cuba in the early 1960s. Her house in Havana became a sanctuary for a whole generation of Central American revolutionaries. Humberto Pineda, her first husband and the father of her two children—one of two brothers Che had described in the diary he kept in Guatemala in 1954 as having “a real pair of balls”—was one of the founders of the Guatemalan guerrilla movement. He was captured, tortured, and murdered in 1966, and in 1975, his brother, Luis Arturo, was “disappeared.” Myrna returned to Nicaragua in 1979, after the Sandinista guerrillas ousted Anastasio Somoza, and she worked for the new government in their press office. When the Sandinistas fell from power, in 1990, she returned to Havana to live. An elegant and vivacious woman, Myrna retained a keen interest in regional politics. Between trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, where her sons lived, she claimed to be writing her memoirs.

Chapter 25
, page 509:
The Latin American guerrilla program had Fidel’s early support. The secret agency known as the Liberation Department was set up under Manuel Piñeiro as a vice ministry—the Viceministerio Técnico—within Ramíro Valdés’s State Security agency. “I was responsible for the intelligence organizations and the Dirección Nacional de Liberación Nacional, which handled Latin America and Africa,” Piñeiro explained. In that capacity, he said, he sustained “an active and intense relationship with Che,” joining in his many predawn conclaves with revolutionaries from around the world. Valdés is said to have concentrated more on counter-espionage directed against the United States, while he also had “some involvement” in implementing the guerrilla programs. Raúl’s role was evidently less direct; in a pattern established early on by Fidel, he was deferred to by being allowed to select his own cadres from within the army for the operations. But Che was the true overseer. “From day one, Che was in charge of the armed liberation movement supported by Cuba,” explained a Cuban government source with access to the relevant classified files.