The Bolivian Diary (17 page)

This is what happened: The ambush was made up of eight men from the rear guard and a reinforcement of three from the vanguard; they were spread out on both sides of the river. When Inti went to inform them that 15 soldiers were coming, he passed Rubio and realized he was in a very bad position, being clearly visible from the river. The soldiers advanced taking few precautions, searching the riverbanks for tracks. They ran into Braulio or Pedro before falling into the ambush. The exchange lasted a few seconds, leaving one dead and three wounded, plus six prisoners. Later a low-ranking officer was hit and four others escaped. Next to another wounded man, they found Rubio dying. His Garand had jammed and a grenade was beside him with the pin released but without having exploded. The prisoner could not be interrogated because he was seriously wounded and died shortly afterward, as did the commanding officer.

From interrogating the prisoners, the following information was gained: These 15 men belong to the same company that
was upriver at the Ñacahuazú; they had crossed through the canyon, collected the skeletons, and then had occupied the camp. According to the soldiers, they had not found anything, although the radio reports that photos and documents had been found there. The company consists of 100 men, of which 15 accompanied a group of journalists to our camp. This group had left to go on a scouting expedition and returned at 17:00. The largest forces are in Pincal, and there are about 30 soldiers in Lagunillas; the group that had gone along the Tiraboy had probably been withdrawn to Gutiérrez. They described their odyssey, being lost in the woods without water and how they had to be rescued. Expecting that more of them would come later, I resolved to keep the ambush in place, which Rolando had moved forward about 500 meters, but now it was reinforced by the entire vanguard. At first I had ordered them to withdraw, but then it seemed logical to leave it as it was. Around 17:00, came information that the army was advancing with a large number of troops. There was nothing to do but wait. I sent off Pombo to get a clear idea of the situation. Some isolated shots were heard for a short time and Pombo returned to say they had fallen into our ambush again and that several were killed and a major had been taken prisoner.
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This time, events unfolded like this: The soldiers had advanced along the river, but they were spread out and did not take any real precautions and we took them completely by surprise. This time there were seven dead, five wounded, and a total of 22 prisoners. The balance sheet is the following: (There are no totals due to a lack of information).

We began the transfer of all our gear in the morning and we buried Rubio in a small, shallow grave, given our lack of materials. Inti stayed with the rear guard to accompany the prisoners and to set them free, as well as to look for more scattered weapons. The only result of the search was two new prisoners and their Garands. We gave two copies of [Communiqué: To the Bolivian People, see
Appendices
] No. 1 to the major, who promised to pass them on to the press. The casualties are now 10 dead, including two lieutenants; 30 prisoners (a major, some non-commissioned officers, and the rest privates); six wounded—one from the first attack and the others from the second.

They are under the command of the Fourth Division, but mixed with elements of several other regiments; there are Rangers, paratroopers, and soldiers from the local area who are just kids.

Not until the afternoon did we finish the transfer and find a cave in which to leave the gear, but it is still not properly prepared. During the last trip, two cows took fright and ran away, so now all we have left is a calf.

Just as we reached the new camp very early, we ran into Joaquín and Alejandro, who had come with all their people. From their information, we concluded that what the soldiers reported was only a figment of Eustaquio's imagination and that moving here was a waste of time.

The radio reported a “new and bloody encounter” and mentioned nine dead from the army and at least four “confirmed” dead on our side.

A Chilean journalist gave a detailed description of our camp
and reported the discovery of a photo of me, without a beard and with a pipe. There will have to be an investigation into how this was obtained. There is no proof that the upper cave has been found, although there are some suggestions this might be the case.

I brought all the combatants together at 6:30, except for the four from the reject group, to hold a small memorial for Rubio where I noted that the first blood spilled was Cuban. I mentioned I had observed a tendency in the vanguard to depreciate the Cubans, a tendency that surfaced yesterday when Camba commented that he had less and less confidence in the Cubans, after an incident with Ricardo. I made a new call for unity as the only possible way to develop our army, pointing out we had increased our firepower and gained combat experience, but our number has not increased; to the contrary, it has decreased in the last few days.

After storing all our booty in a cave prepared well by Ñato, we left at 14:00 at a slow pace. We were so slow that we barely advanced and had to sleep by a small water hole, although we had just set out.

Now the army admits to 11 dead; either they found another corpse or someone died of their wounds. I began a little course on Debray's book.

Part of a message has been decoded, but it does not seem very important.

We divided the group into two to be able to walk faster, but
despite this, we still went slowly, reaching the camp at 16:00 and the other group arriving at 18:30. Miguel had come back in the morning; the caves had not been discovered and nothing had been touched: the benches, the stoves, the oven, and the seedbeds are still intact.

Aniceto and Raúl went off exploring but did not do well; tomorrow they must try again to reach the Iquira River.

The announcement by the North Americans that they are sending advisers to Bolivia corresponds to an old plan and has nothing to do with the guerrillas. Perhaps we are witnessing the first episode of a new Vietnam.

A monotonous day. We brought some things from the infirmary, giving us enough food for five days. When we went to get the canned milk from the upper cave, we discovered that 23 cans were inexplicably missing; Moro had left 48, and it seems nobody had time to take them. Milk is a corrupting factor. A mortar and a machine gun were taken from the cave to reinforce our position until Joaquín gets here. It is not quite clear how to conduct the operation, but it seems to me that the best way would be for everyone to leave here, to operate for a short time from the Muyupampa area, and then to withdraw to the north. If it is possible, Dantón and Carlos should head to Sucre-Cochabamba, depending on the circumstances. Communiqué No. 2 was written for the Bolivian people (D. XXI) and Report No. 4 is for Manila, which the Frenchman should deliver.

Joaquín arrived with the rear guard and we decided to leave
tomorrow. He reported that planes had flown over the area and that artillery had been fired into the woods. The day went by without incident. The group is now completely armed; the .30 caliber machine gun is assigned to the rear guard (Marcos), who will have the reject group as his assistants.

At night I talked about the trip, and issued a severe warning about the problem of the disappearing canned milk.

We decoded part of a long message from Cuba, which, to summarize, states that Lechín knows about me and is going to declare his support; he will reenter the country clandestinely in 20 days.

I wrote a note to Fidel (No. 4) informing him of recent events. It is going out in code and invisible ink.

The vanguard set out at 6:15 and we left at 7:15, walking at a good pace to the Iquira River, but Tania and Alejandro fell behind. When their temperatures were taken, Tania's was over 39 degrees and Alejandro's was about 38. Moreover, the delay prevented us from progressing as we had planned. We left the two of them, along with Negro and Serapio, a kilometer up the Iquira and we proceed to occupy the hamlet called Bella Vista; to be more precise, a place where we bought potatoes, a pig, and corn from four peasants. The peasants are poor and are quite terrified by our presence here. We spent the night cooking and eating and not moving, in the hope that in the morning we can reach Ticucha without being seen.

The news kept changing and with it our plans; according to the
peasants, going to Ticucha would be a waste of time because there is a direct route to Muyupampa (Vaca Guzmán) that is shorter and the last stretch is wide enough for vehicles; we resolved to go directly to Muyupampa, after much vacillation on my part. I sent for the four stragglers who will stay with Joaquín and ordered him to make their presence known so as to preempt excessive troop movement in the area; he should wait for us for three days. Until then, he should stay in the area but should avoid engaging in direct combat until we return. At night it was learned that a peasant's son had disappeared and that he might have gone to raise the alarm, but we decided to leave in spite of everything in order to get the Frenchman and Carlos out once and for all. Moisés must stay with the group of stragglers because of an acute gallbladder attack.

Here is a sketch of our situation:

By returning via the same route, we risk clashing with army units alerted in Lagunillas or with some column coming from Ticucha, but we have to do this to avoid being separated from the rear guard.

We started out at 22:00, walking with breaks until 4:30, when we stopped for a nap. We had covered some 10 kilometers.
Of all the peasants we have encountered, there is one, Simón, who appears to want to cooperate, although he is scared, and another one, Vides, could be dangerous; he is the “rich man” of the area. Moreover, we have to consider that Carlos Rodas's son disappeared and might be an informer (under the influence of Vides, who is the economic boss of the area).

We walked until daybreak, napping for the last hour of night in considerably cold weather. In the morning, the vanguard went off to explore, finding a household of Guaranís, who offered very little information. Our sentries stopped a man on a horse who turned out to be Carlos Rodas's son (another one) traveling to Yakunday; we took him prisoner. It was a slow walk, and at 3:00 we reached Matagal, the house of A. Padilla, a poor brother of another peasant who lives a league from here and whose house we had passed. The man was terrified and tried to get rid of us by every possible means. To make matters worse, it began to rain and we had to take refuge in his house.

We stayed all day in the same place, detaining peasants coming from both directions, so we acquired an assortment of prisoners. At 13:00 the sentries brought us a Greek gift: an English journalist called Roth,
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who had been brought by some kids from Lagunillas following our tracks. His documents were in order but there were some suspicious things: In his passport, the profession of student is crossed out and replaced
by journalist (he claims to be a photographer). He has a visa from Puerto Rico and when asked about an organizer's card from Buenos Aires, he confessed to have been a Spanish teacher for some Peace Corps students. He said he had been at the camp and had seen Braulio's diary that told of his experiences and trips. It is always the same old story: a lack of discipline and irresponsibility at every turn. The kids who brought the journalist told us they learned about us in Lagunillas our first night there, thanks to a report by someone. We pressured Rodas's son and he confessed that his brother and one of Vides's farmhands had gone to claim the reward of between $500 and $1,000. We confiscated his horse in reprisal and made this known to the other peasants we were detaining.

The Frenchman asked if he could discuss the problem with the Englishman, as a test of good faith, to see if he would help them get out. Carlos accepted this reluctantly and I washed my hands of the whole matter. We got to
[illegible in the original]
at 21:00 and continued on to Muyupampa, where, according to reports from the peasants, everything was calm. The Englishman accepted the conditions that Inti put to him, including a short account I had drafted. At 23:45, after shaking hands with those leaving us, the group set off to occupy the village; I stayed behind with Pombo, Tuma, and Urbano.

The cold was intense and we made a little bonfire. At 1:00 Ñato arrived to inform us that the village was in a state of alert, with about 20 army troops and self-defense patrols there; one of these patrols, with two M-3s and two revolvers, were surprised by our advance party, but surrendered without a fight. They asked for my instructions and I told them to withdraw due to the lateness of the hour, to release the English journalist, and let the Frenchman and Carlos make their own choices. At 4:00 we began the retreat, without gaining our objective; Carlos decided to stay and the Frenchman followed him; this time he was the reluctant one.