African National Congress (Johannesburg)
Thabo Mbeki
12 October 2007
document
As we grew up at the beginning of the 1960s, as young activists of the African National Congress, we drew great strength from the 1959 victory of the Cuban revolution. Its leaders such as Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara served as an inspiration and an example of what we had to do to achieve our own liberation.
At that time, one of the songs we loved dearly was "Day-O", about the hard life of a banana plantation worker in the Caribbean, sung by Harry Belafonte. Its second stanza says:
Work all night on a drink a' rum,
(Daylight come and he wan' go home).
Stack banana till morning come,
(Daylight come and he wan' go home).
We changed these and other lyrics in the song. In the place of the chorus line, "Daylight come and he wan' go home", we sang: "Take the country the Castro way". This was our own tribute to the young Cuban revolution and an affirmation of the relevance of the Cuban revolution to our own struggle.
It was therefore with immense shock and grief that we learnt in 1967 that our beloved hero, Che Guevara, aged 39, had perished in combat in Bolivia, not long after the death in strange circumstances of another of our heroes and esteemed leaders, our own President Albert Luthuli.
Two years earlier we did not know that Che had written a farewell letter to Fidel Castro on 1 April 1965 resigning from all his Cuban Party and Government positions, renouncing his Cuban citizenship and informing Fidel that he would be leaving Cuba.
In service to the wretched of the earth
In words that confirmed to us the Che we felt we knew, Che the revolutionary combatant for the oppressed of the world, he wrote:
"Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts of assistance. I can do that which is denied you due to your responsibility as the head of Cuba, and the time has come for us to part.
"You should know that I do so with a mixture of joy and sorrow...I carry to new battlefronts the faith that you taught me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be. This is a source of strength, and more than heals the deepest of wounds."
Having spent some time with the then resistance movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Che Guevara went to Bolivia to offer his "modest efforts of assistance" to the Bolivian people. He was captured by a Rangers Unit of the Bolivian Army on 8 October 1967, having been wounded during a battle between his guerrilla unit and elements of the Bolivian Army. He was murdered the following day, 9 October, shot by one Sgt Terran, allegedly on the orders of the Bolivian High Command.
The moment of death
The following account of these events was given by one CIA Agent, Felix Rodriguez, who was attached to the Bolivian Ranger Units:
"1:30 p.m.: Che's final battle commences in Quebrada del Yuro. Simon Cuba (Willy) Sarabia, a Bolivian miner, leads the rebel group. Che is behind him and is shot in the leg several times. Sarabia picks up Che and tries to carry him away from the line of fire. The firing starts again and Che's beret is knocked off. Sarabia sits Che on the ground so he can return the fire. Encircled at less than ten yards distance, the Rangers concentrate their fire on him, riddling him with bullets.
"Che attempts to keep firing, but cannot keep his gun up with only one arm. He is hit again on his right leg, his gun is knocked out of his hand and his right forearm is pierced. As soldiers approach Che, he shouts, 'Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead.' The battle ends at approximately 3:30 p.m. Che is taken prisoner....
"Rodriguez enters the schoolhouse (in which the prisoner was detained), to tell Che of the orders from the Bolivian high command. Che understands and says, 'It is better like this ... I never should have been captured alive.' Che gives Rodriguez a message for his wife and for Fidel, they embrace, and Rodriguez leaves the room."
Another CIA report said: "Cpt Frado gave the order to execute Guevara to Lt Perez, but he was unable to carry out the order and in turn gave it to Sgt Terran, of Company A...Sgt Terran had fortified his courage with several beers and returned to the room where Guevara stood up, hands tied in front, and stated, 'I know what you have come for, I am ready.' ...
"Sgt Terran returned to the room where Guevara was being held. When he entered, Guevara stood and faced him. Sgt Terran told Guevara to be seated but he refused to sit down and stated, 'I will remain standing for this.' The Sgt began to get angry and told him to be seated again, but Guevara would say nothing. Finally Guevara told him, 'Know this now, you are [only] killing a man.' Terran then fired a burst from his M2 carbine, knocking Guevara back into the wall of the small house."
A matter of interest
On 9 October 1967, the then US Defence Secretary, Walt Rostow, wrote a memorandum to US President Lyndon B Johnson in which he said:
"Mr President:
"This tentative information that the Bolivians got Che Guevara will interest you. It is not yet confirmed. The Bolivian unit engaged is the one we have been training for some time and has just entered the field of action.
"President Barrientos at 10.00 a.m., October 9, told a group of newsmen, but not for publication until further notice, that Che Guevara is dead...
"Presencia, October 9, reports capture 'Che' Guevara...General Ovando reportedly proceeding to Vallegrande today at head of investigating team for purpose of identifying guerrilla dead and captured."
On 19 October, the US Department of State Director of Intelligence and Research sent a memorandum to the Secretary of State which said: "Che Guevara's death was a crippling - perhaps fatal - blow to the Bolivian guerrilla movement and may prove a serious setback for Fidel Castro's hopes to foment revolution in 'all or almost all' Latin American countries. Those Communists and others who might have been prepared to initiate Cuban-style guerrilla warfare will be discouraged, at least for a time, by the defeat of the foremost tactician of the Cuban revolutionary strategy at the hands of one of the weakest armies in the hemisphere."
But whence these voices of triumph?
A message from Che
In a Message to the magazine Tricontinental in 1966, Che had written: "Twenty-one years have already elapsed since the end of the last world conflagration...There is a climate of apparent optimism in many areas of the different camps into which the world is divided.
"Twenty-one years without a world war, in these times of maximum confrontations, of violent clashes and sudden changes, appears to be a very high figure. However, without analysing the practical results of this peace (poverty, degradation, increasingly larger exploitation of enormous sectors of humanity) for which all of us have stated that we are willing to fight, we would do well to inquire if this peace is real...
"There is a sad reality: Vietnam - a nation representing the aspirations, the hopes of a whole world of forgotten peoples - is tragically alone...
"The solidarity of all progressive forces of the world towards the people of Vietnam today is similar to the bitter irony of the plebeians coaxing on the gladiators in the Roman arena. It is not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory...
"America, a forgotten continent in the last liberation struggles, is now beginning to make itself heard through the Tricontinental and, in the voice of the vanguard of its peoples, the Cuban Revolution, will today have a task of much greater relevance: creating a Second or a Third Vietnam, or the Second and Third Vietnam of the world...
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