Fidel's Executioner (Part VIII)

Fidel's Executioner (Part VIII)
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=19824&p=1
By Humberto Fontova
October 14, 2005

Among the unreported idiocies regarding Che's Bolivian debacle, was how he
split his forces into a vanguard and a rearguard in April of 1967, whereupon
they got hopelessly lost and bumbled around , half-starved, half-clothed and
half-shod, without any contact for 6 months -- though they were usually
within a mile of each other. [43] They didn't even have WWII vintage
walkie-talkies to communicate. Che's masterful Guerrilla War, gives no
explanation for such a tactic.

Dariel Alarcon, a Cuban who was one of the three guerrillas who managed to
survive and escape Bolivia, reports in his book, Benigno; Memorias de un
Soldado Cubano how in the very midst of this blundering around, Che was
obsessed with posing for photos. One was Che atop a (presumably stolen)
horse on a ridgeline where he was strategically silhouetted against the bare
sky. Che handed Alarcon his Pentax and had him back off just the right
distance to capture the entire scene. Che nodded then plucked out a machete
and waved it high over his head, even adding a sound score to the scene,
shouting: "I am the new Bolivar!" as Alarcon dutifully clicked away.

While Che was posing for pictures neither he nor anyone in his group had any
way to communicate with Cuba. Castro had sent an agent named Renan Montero
to La Paz to keep in touch with Che, but Montero abruptly left Bolivia in
July of 1967 and returned to Cuba. Significantly, just a week earlier,
Alexie Kosygin had visited Cuba and met with Castro, where he laid it on the
line.

Kosygin had just come from a meeting with Lyndon Johnson where the U.S.
President had laid it on the line, complaining about Castroite subversion in
Latin America, and how this was a clear breach of the deal the U.S. and
Soviets had cut back in October 1962 that had kept Castro unmolested. Now
this mischief in Bolivia might force the U.S. into an agonizing reappraisal
of that deal. [44]

Well, Castro didn't have his heart in the Bolivian adventure anyway. And now
he could finally rid himself of the Argentine popinjay. Montero came home
and Che was cast completely adrift.

Barely two months later the "National Liberation Army" was wiped out. Che's
capture merits some clarification. His hagiographers have romanticized his
last day alive. Che was defiant, they claim. Che was surprised, caught off
guard and was unable to properly defend himself or to shoot himself with his
last bullet as was his plan.

Nothing in the actual record supports this fantasy. In fact everything
points to Che surrendering quite enthusiastically, right after he ordered
his men to fight to the last man and the last bullet.

Most did, but Che was captured with a full clip in his pistol. Even more
suspiciously, though he was in the bottom of a ravine during the final
firefight and could have escaped in the opposite direction like a few of his
men, Che actually moved upwards and towards the Bolivian soldiers who had
been firing. Yet he was doing no firing of his own in the process. Then as
soon as he saw some soldiers he yelled, "Don't shoot! I'm Che!" [45]

Immediately after his capture his demeanor was even more interesting "What's
your name, young man?" Che asked a soldier. "Why what a great name for a
Bolivian soldier!" he blurted after hearing it.

The firefight was still raging after Che's surrender. His men, unlike their
comandante, were indeed fighting to the last bullet. Soon a wounded Bolivian
soldier was carried by.

"Shall I attend him?!" Che asked his captors.

"Why? Are you a doctor?" asked Bolivian army captain Gary Prado.

"No, (the truth at last!) but I have some knowledge of medicine," answered
Guevara, resuming his pathetic attempt to ingratiate himself with his
captors. [46]

--
Jim
http://www.geocities.com/anti_multiculture/index.html
Unite Against Multiculturalism

"Abolish Multiculturalism and String Up The Traitors!"


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