The Bolivian Diary (32 page)

Altitude = 1,300 meters.

Barrientos and Ovando gave a press conference in which they went over all the information in the documents and said that Joaquín's group had been wiped out.

The place was a lovely orange grove that still had a good amount of fruit. We spent the day resting and sleeping but kept a careful watch. At 1:00 we got up and at 2:00 left in the direction of Loma Larga, which we reached at dawn, passing altitudes of 1,800 meters. The men are heavily loaded with supplies and the march is slow. Benigno's cooking upset my stomach.

By the time we reached the settlement called Loma Larga, I had pains in my liver and was vomiting; the troops are exhausted from these unproductive hikes. I decided to spend the night at the junction of the road to Pujío; we killed a pig sold to us by the only peasant still left in his house (Sóstenos Vargas), the others fled as soon as they saw us coming.

Altitude = 1,400 meters.

We got to Pujío early, but there were people who had seen us down below the day before, which means Radio Bemba
⁵
is preceding us. Pujío is a small settlement on a hill; the people fled when they saw us, but later approached us and treated us well. A
carabinero
had left early in the morning, having come from Serrano in Chuquisaca state to arrest a debtor; we are at the point where the three states converge. Traveling with mules is now dangerous, but we are trying to make it as easy as possible for El Médico who is becoming very weak. The peasants say they know nothing about the army being in this area. We walked in short stretches until we reached Tranca Mayo, where we slept beside the road because Miguel did not take the precautions I had demanded. The magistrate of La Higuera is in the area and the sentries were ordered to detain him.

Altitude = 1,800 meters.

Inti and I talked with Camba and he will stay with us until we are within sight of La Higuera, the point located close to Pucará, from where he will try to get to Santa Cruz.

Defeat. At the crack of dawn we came to Picacho where everyone was involved in a fiesta; this is the highest point we have reached: 2,280 meters; the peasants treated us very well and we carried on without too many fears, despite Ovando having made assurances of my capture any moment now.

On reaching La Higuera, everything changed; the men had
disappeared and only a few women remained. Coco went to the telegraph operator's house, where there is a telephone, and brought back a cable dated the 22nd, from which we learned that a sub-prefect of Vallegrande told the magistrate that if he had news of a guerrilla presence in the area, that information should be communicated to Vallegrande, which will cover the costs; the man had fled, but his wife assured us that he had not spoken to anyone today because everyone was off celebrating in the next town, Jagüey.

The vanguard set out at 13:00 to try to reach Jagüey and make a decision there about the mules and about El Médico; a little later I was talking to the only man left in town, who was very scared, when a coca merchant turned up, saying he had come from Vallegrande and Pucará and had seen nothing. He also was very nervous, which I attributed to our presence and let both of them go, in spite of the lies they told us. As I was going up to the crest of the hill, at approximately 13:30, shots coming from along the ridge indicated our men had fallen into an ambush. I organized the defense in the little village, to wait for the survivors, and set up an exit on the road that leads to the Río Grande. A few moments later, Benigno arrived, wounded, followed by Aniceto and Pablito, with a foot in a bad way. Miguel, Coco, and Julio had been killed and Camba had disappeared, leaving behind his backpack. The rear guard advanced quickly along the road and I followed them, bringing the two mules. Those in the rear were under fire and fell behind and Inti lost contact. After waiting for him for half an hour in an ambush position, with more gunfire coming from the hill, we decided to get out; but he caught up with us shortly. By this time we realized León had disappeared, and Inti said that he
had seen his backpack by the gorge he came through; we saw a man who was walking fast along a canyon and concluded it was him. To try to throw them off our trail, we let the mules go in the canyon below and we proceeded along a small gorge that farther up had brackish water; we slept at 12:00 as it was impossible to go on.

At 4:00 we started out again, trying to find a way up, which we found at 7:00, but it was on the opposite side from where we had wanted to be. Ahead there was a barren hill, which seemed harmless. We climbed a little higher to find a refuge from the aircraft, in a sparsely wooded spot; there we discovered that the hill had a path, although no one had used it all day. At dusk a peasant and a soldier climbed halfway up the hill and were there for a while, without seeing us. Aniceto was just returning from scouting the area, when he saw a large group of soldiers in a nearby house, so the easiest route for us was now blocked off. In the morning we saw a column of soldiers going up a nearby hill, with their equipment shining in the sun; later, at noon, isolated shots were heard together with some bursts of machine-gun fire; then shouts were heard of “there he is,” “come out of there,” and “are you coming or not?” accompanied by shooting. We had no idea of the fate of the man, whom we presume to be Camba. We set out at dusk to try to get down to the water along the other side, halting in some vegetation that was a little thicker than before; we have to seek water in the same canyon because we could not get past the cliff.

The radio broadcast the news that we had clashed with the Galindo company, leaving three dead, whose bodies were being
taken to Vallegrande for identification. Apparently they have not caught Camba or León. Our losses have been very great this time; the deepest loss is that of Coco, but Miguel and Julio were magnificent fighters and the human value of the three is incalculable. León had a lot of promise.

Altitude = 1,400 meters.

Day of anguish, and for a moment it seemed it would be our last.

Water was fetched at dawn and Inti and Willy left right away to explore another possible way into the canyon, but they returned immediately because a track runs across the hill ahead of us and a peasant on a horse was traveling along it. At 10:00, 46 soldiers went past in front of us, carrying backpacks, and it seemed like centuries for them to move on. At 12:00, another group made its appearance, this time with 77 men; to top it off, a shot was heard at that moment, and the soldiers took their positions; the officer gave the order to go down into the ravine that seemed to be where we were, but after communicating by radio, he seemed satisfied to resume the march.

Our refuge has no defense against an attack from above and the possibilities of escaping are remote if they discover us. Later a lagging soldier passed by dragging an exhausted dog, trying to get it to walk. Later on, a peasant came along, guiding a soldier who had fallen behind; the peasant returned after a while, and although nothing happened the anguish at the moment the shot was fired was considerable. All the soldiers carried their backpacks, which gives the impression that they are withdrawing, and we did not see any fires at the little house
during the evening, nor did we hear the shots they usually fire as a night salute. Tomorrow we will spend all day exploring the settlement. A light rain soaked us but was probably insufficient to erase our tracks.

The radio announced the identification of Coco, and gave a confused report about Julio; Miguel was mixed up with Antonio, describing his responsibilities in Manila. At first they ran a news item about my death; later this was retracted.

Another tense day. The scouts, Inti and Aniceto, went off early to watch the house all day. From early on there was activity on the road, and by mid-morning, there were soldiers without backpacks going in both directions, while more came up from below leading donkeys. The donkeys had no loads but returned with them. Inti arrived at 18:15 reporting that 16 soldiers who had gone down the hill were at the farm and could no longer be seen; the donkeys are apparently being loaded down there.

In view of this, it was difficult to make a decision about taking that route, the easiest and most logical option, but it was also easy for the soldiers to ambush us, and besides, the dogs in the house might give us away. Tomorrow we will conduct two more scouting expeditions: one will go to the same place and the other will try to get as far as possible along the ridge to see if there is a way out, probably by taking the same road used by the soldiers.

The radio broadcast no news.

Another day of tension. In the morning, Radio Balmaseda
of Chile announced that highly placed sources in the army announced Che Guevara is cornered in a canyon in the jungle. The local stations are silent; this could be a betrayal and they are convinced about our presence in the area. In a while, the soldiers began moving back and forth. At 12:00, 40 soldiers went past in separate columns with their weapons at the ready, on their way to the little house where they set up camp and established a lookout with nervous guards.

Aniceto and Pacho reported this. Inti and Willy returned with the news that the Río Grande was about two kilometers away, as the crow flies, and that there are three houses above the canyon, and that there are places to camp where we would be hidden from every side. We went to find water, and at 22:00 began an exhausting night march, slowed down by Chino who walks very badly in the dark. Benigno is fine, but El Médico has not fully recovered.

It should have been a month of recuperation, and almost was, but the ambush in which Miguel, Coco, and Julio were killed ruined everything, and left us in a perilous position, losing León as well; losing Camba is a net gain.

We have had several small skirmishes: one in which we killed a horse; another in which we killed one soldier and wounded another; one where Urbano had a shoot-out with a patrol; and the disastrous ambush at La Higuera. Now we have abandoned the mules and I believe it will be a long time before we have animals like that again, unless I fall into another bad state of asthma.

On the other hand, there may be truth to the various reports
about fatalities in the other [Joaquín's] group, so we must consider them wiped out, although it is still possible there is a small group wandering around, avoiding contact with the army, because the news of the death of seven people at once might well be false, or at least, exaggerated.

The features are the same as last month, except that now the army is demonstrating more effectiveness in action and the peasant masses are not helping us with anything and are becoming informers.

The most important task is to escape and seek more favorable areas; then focus on contacts, despite the fact that our urban network in La Paz is in a shambles, where we have also been hit hard. The morale of the rest of the troops has remained fairly high, and I only have doubts about Willy, who might take advantage of some commotion to escape, if he is not spoken to first.

1
.
Honorato Rojas.

2
.
Dr. Hugo Lozano, Bolivian, a stomatologist and member of the urban network.

3
.
A place with
chuchío
—a species of hollowed cane similar to the willow or bamboo.

4
.
Army Colonel Luis Reque Terán.

5
.
Cuban expression meaning “word of mouth” or “grapevine.”

This first day of the month passed without incident.

At daybreak we came to some sparse little woods where we camped, posting sentries at different points of approach. The 40 men, firing a few shots, moved on to a canyon where we were planning to go; we heard the last shots at 14:00; there seems to be no one in the little houses, although Urbano saw five soldiers go down there, not following any path. I decided to stay here one more day because this is a good spot with a guaranteed exit, and, moreover, we can see almost all the enemy troops' movements. Pacho, with Ñato, Darío, and Eustaquio, went to look for water and returned at 21:00. Chapaco cooked fritters and we had a little bit of
charqui
to ease our hunger.