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28 April 2010 By Reason Wafawarova
ON October 8, 1967, this writer was exactly 151
days old and a global revolutionary hero was seriously
wounded and captured as a member of 17 Bolivian
guerrilla remnants of a larger group that had been
trapped by CIA-backed Bolivian troops from September
28 the same year.
On October 9, Che Guevara, the captured global hero
of all the oppressed masses of this world, was
summarily murdered together with two other captured
guerrillas following instructions from the Bolivian
government and Washington.
Today, 42 years later, Cuba each year observes
October 8 as the Day of the Heroic Guerrilla in memory
of Cde Che Guevara and another important commemoration
in relation to this heroic revolutionary is April 24,
the date Guevara entered Congo, now DRC in 1965,
having vowed to avenge the ruthless assassination of
Patrice Lumumba in January 1961, and to help the
Laurent Kabila-led rebels to fight the puppet
government of Joseph Mobutu, the man installed by the
imperial forces that cut out Lumumba.
Che Guevara’s contact with the African continent
began on July 3 1963 when he visited newly independent
Algeria, under the leadership of Ahmed Ben Bella.
He was later to revisit Algeria the following year
in mid-December on a three-month state visit that saw
him also visiting Mali, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea,
Ghana, Tanzania and Egypt.
On April 1, 1965, he left Cuba disguised facially
and under the name of Ramon Benitez. He landed in Dar
es Salaam Tanzania, and sailed across Lake Tanganyika
into the Congolese territory of Kibamba.
Che Guevara hoped to join what he thought was a
fired up group of fighters that he would help to
topple Joseph Mobutu, and possibly avenge the death of
Patrice Lumumba. He was smitten by a deadly fever on
arrival and on recovery, he came face to face with a
rude awakening to the reality he was going to be part
of.
He realised that Laurent Kabila’s rebel fighters
had near appalling organisational structures and Che
was both surprised and annoyed at some of the
observations he made. He, however, helped the
leadership of the Cuban troop contingent that was
already in Congo and he began fighting under the name
Tatu.
The Congolese rebel fighters proved prone to
drunkenness, dissipation, and laziness and there was
just no disposition to fight or resist, let alone to
overthrow Joseph Mobutu’s puppet regime.
This group of fighters was not as organised as the
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of
Congo — the victorious group that captured Kinshasa
and overthrew Mobutu on May 17, 1997, still under
Laurent Kabila.
The comforting news for the Che Guevara legacy is
that the ADFLC atoned for what the 1965 Laurent Kabila-led
group failed to do, and Mobutu faced an exit that
somewhat brought justice to his crimes against Lumumba
and against the people of Congo.
So disorganised were the Congolese rebels that the
1965 Bendera attack was a historical disaster,
exposing for the first time the involvement of Cuban
troops. Che Guevara held a meeting with Laurent Kabila
after this and he insisted on being given a greater
role in structuring the rebel fighters and things
improved a bit after this meeting.
However, the Cuban troops were too disgruntled to
keep backing a group that seemed to be disintegrating.
In September of the same year, Che’s presence in the
Congo was confirmed by the CIA and by apartheid South
Africa, causing a diplomatic embarrassment for Cuba.
But Che was an internationalist revolutionary and not
a diplomat.
On the diplomatic front, Fidel Castro announced the
pending withdrawal of the Cuban troops but Che was
adamant that he would remain to help see the fight
through.
After seeing clear signs that the Congolese
fighters were going to disintegrate anyway, and after
some persuasion from Fidel Castro, Che Guevara finally
left Congo on November 22, 1965.
He went back to Cuba before he left to join the
guerrillas fighting for freedom in Bolivia, his last
assignment before his illustrious military and
revolutionary career was terminated on that fateful
day of September 9, 1967.
But who was this Che Guevara? Central America,
Soviet Union, China, Africa, Asia and the rest of
Eastern Europe were all immensely influenced by Che’s
revolutionary exploits, and indeed today the whole
world is inspired by Che Guevara’s quest for justice
and equality. Che inspires young rebels across the
world whenever they put up a fight against the
establishment.
Che was a revolutionary, a communist revolutionary,
and a true communist; he had boundless faith in moral
values. He had boundless faith in the consciousness of
human beings and he saw with absolute clarity the
moral impulse as the fundamental lever in the
construction of communism and social justice in human
society.
He was a man of action, a man of great thought, a
great person of untarnished moral virtues, a person of
unexcelled human sensitivity and a man of spotless
conduct.
Born Ernesto Guevara on June 14, 1928 in Rosario,
Argentina, to parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia
de la Serna, Che was the oldest of five children.
He enrolled at a medical school in Buenos Aires in
1947, graduating as a medical doctor in 1953. After
graduating, Guevara started travelling throughout
Latin America and he visited Bolivia, where he
observed the impact of the 1952 revolution.
In December 1953, Guevara had first contact with a
group of Cuban survivors of the July 26, 1953 Moncada
attack. These survivors were now in San Jose, Costa
Rica and their leader Fidel Castro had been captured
and imprisoned back in Cuba.
Guevara then arrived in Guatemala on the Christmas
Eve of 1953, and then under the elected government of
Jacob Arbenz and on January 4, 1954 he met Nico Lopez,
a veteran of the Moncada attack, who was now in
Guatemala City.
It is in Guatemala where Guevara started reading
Marxism and became heavily involved in political
activities, meeting exiled Cuban revolutionaries.
The United States took great exception to
Guatemala’s support for Cuban rebels who were fighting
Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorial regime.
On June 17, 1954 mercenary forces backed and armed
by the CIA invaded Guatemala and Guevara volunteered
to fight. However, Jacob Arbenz resigned 10 days later
and by August the mercenary forces were on full
throttle massacring supporters of the Arbenz regime.
Guevara fled Guatemala and arrived in Mexico on
September 21, 1954, subsequently getting a job as a
doctor at the Mexico City Central Hospital.
Guevara met Nico Lopez again in Mexico in June
1955, and a meeting was arranged for him to meet Raul
Castro. Fidel Castro was to later join the exiles in
July after being released from prison. As soon as
Fidel arrived, a meeting was arranged between him and
Guevara, and Guevara immediately enrolled as the third
confirmed member of the future guerrilla expedition.
Subsequently, Guevara became involved in training
combatants and the Cubans nicknamed him "Che" which is
an Argentinean term of greeting.
On June 24, 1956 Guevara was arrested as part of a
roundup of 28 expeditionaries by Mexican police; and
also arrested was Fidel Castro, and Guevara was
detained for 57 days.
When an 82-member group of fighters led by Castro
left Mexico for Cuba on November 25, 1956, Guevara was
the team doctor and they reached Cuba’s Las Coloradas
beach in Oriente Province on December 2.
Three days later, the rebel combatants were
surprised by Batista’s troops at Alegria de Pio and
they were dispersed as the majority of them were
either murdered or captured. Guevara was wounded but
he escaped.
He reunited with Fidel Castro on December 21 and it
was established that time that the Rebel Army had only
15 combatants left. The fighters did not despair,
overrunning an army outpost in the battle of La Plata
on January 17, 1957 and ambushing a government column
at Arroyo del Infierno five days later.
Guevara was promoted to Army Commander in July 1957
and in August he led an invasion column from the
Sierra Maestra towards Las Villas Province in Central
Cuba.
In October 1958, the Rebel Army column led by
Guevara arrived in the Escambray Mountains.
Guevara’s column, the March 13 Revolutionary
Directorate and Camilo Cienfugoes’ column combined
forces in December 1958, and they captured a number of
towns in Las Villas Province, effectively cutting the
island in half.
Guevara’s column then went on the offensive on
December 28, targeting Santa Clara, the capital of Las
Villas. Four days later, Batista fled Cuba, and a
military junta took over power. Fidel Castro opposed
the military takeover and called for a successful
national strike in protest. Guevara’s column continued
the attack on Santa Clara, capturing it on the same
New Year’s Day in 1959.
Che Guevara was declared a Cuban citizen on
February 9, 1959 in recognition of his contribution to
Cuba’s liberation. He was variously designated posts
of head of the Department of Industry of the National
Institute of Agrarian Reform, president of the
National Bank of Cuba and also first Minister of the
Ministry of Industry.
Che visited Algeria in July 1963, and this was his
first visit to Africa, and it marked the beginning of
the strong link between the Guevara legacy and the
continent of Africa.
Back in Cuba in March 1964, Guevara met with Tamara
Bunke (Tania) and discussed her mission to move back
to Bolivia in anticipation of a future guerrilla
expedition.
On December 17, 1964 Guevera left for Africa for
the second time, visiting Algeria, Mali,
Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania and Egypt
up to March 1965.
On April 1, Che Guevara delivered a farewell letter
to Fidel Castro and as earlier stated he subsequently
left for an internationalist mission to fight the
puppet regime of Joseph Mobutu in Congo, now DRC.
Asked about Che’s whereabouts, Castro told foreign
reporters that Guevara "will always be where he is
most useful to the revolution". That is what we know
of Che Guevara today. His name is always most
important and useful in inspiring young
revolutionaries all over the world. Che would have
supported Zimbabwe’s agrarian reforms and its economic
empowerment policies if he was alive today.
So Che preferred Africa to Bolivia, a country in
his own home continent. He chose to come to Congo
leaving Tamara Bunke to go it alone for a while in
organising the Bolivian guerrilla warfare. That is how
relevant Africa is to the immortal legacy of Che
Guevara.
After leaving Congo in November 1965, Guevara went
to join and help organise the guerrillas in Bolivia,
of course posting victories like the occupation of the
town of Sumaipata on July 6, 1967.
This piece has been written in memory of a great
revolutionary for independent nationalism and the
fight against imperial authority, a man who declared
once that "anyone who trembles with indignation at the
sight of injustice is my comrade".
It is also written in solidarity with the people of
Cuba as they prepare to commemorate April 24, the day
Che Guevara arrived in Congo to take part in military
action against the forces of imperialism right on
African soil.
Che was cut down at the age of 39, and the
imperialists boast of their triumph at having killed
this guerrilla fighter in action.
They take delight in a triumphant stroke of luck
that led to the elimination of such a formidable man
of action. Little do they know that the man of action
was only one of the many facets of the personality of
that combatant we call Enersto Che Guevara.
We are always delighted by the seed that Che
Guevara left for posterity and for generations across
the planet. The seed of resistance to imperial tyranny
will forever blossom and in this internationalist
expedition of resistance, Che lives on as an immortal
source of inspiration to the attainment of independent
nationalism.
Cuba we are one and together we will overcome. It
is homeland or death! Victory is certain.
Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can
be contacted on
wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@ rwafawarova.com
or visit
www.rwafawarova.com
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