Diary of a Combatant Page 23
At dusk we begin marching along the rice field causeways, passing near the hamlet of Roca and Álvarez [Roque Álvarez].12
We crossed the highway without any problem and got to the Jiménez farm, where two trucks were waiting for us. We began a difficult march with the column divided up because we couldn’t all fit [in the trucks]. At 3:00 in the morning the first group reached Cayo Grande where we were able to catch some sleep, despite a cloud of mosquitoes. At dawn the rest of the men arrived, having had to walk part of the way because the trucks broke down.
1. This support from the US government and all the aid given to Batista’s regime wasn’t enough, so now the US Congress approved a bill to provide funds for the construction of buildings for Guantánamo Bay’s Public Works Center, that is, a further expansion of the naval base on Cuban soil.
2. Adalberto Pesant González, a distinguished combatant from Che’s column, unfortunately died while deactivating a projectile captured from Batista’s troops.
3. General Eulogio Cantillo directed all Batista’s counterinsurgency campaigns from the command post in Bayamo.
4. For a detailed account of the organization and development of Column Eight in its westward “invasion” march, see De la Sierra Maestra al Escambray by Joel Iglesias (Cuba: Editorial Letras Cubanas), 1979.
5. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez was a key leader of the PSP, who had various responsibilities after the triumph of the revolution. In this period of mid-1958, the unity and participation of all the revolutionary forces began to be more clearly defined, despite the opposition of the conservative and anticommunist tendencies among the anti-Batista forces.
6. Although not revealing many details, Fidel had already given Che the mission of creating an “invasion” column with the objective of marching on Las Villas. Che received this written order officially on August 21, the column eventually becoming known as the Ciro Redondo Column Eight.
7. See the letter of October 3, 1958, from Faustino Pérez to Armando Hart in the appendices to this book.
8. Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz later betrayed the revolution.
9. At this point, the column gradually moves toward the village of El Jíbaro, where Che establishes his command post until the column is ready to move west.
10. The plane landed on Cayo Espino, near the home of Eduardo Guerra, the father of the combatant Felipe Guerra Matos, who died in that action from the impact of an enemy bomb.
11. Che sent a note to Fidel on the day of his departure to bid him farewell “seriously.” The impending hurricane made the departure more difficult and more dangerous.
12. This paragraph and the one following were dated September 1, but Che notes: “This should be considered [part of August] 31, since it is an error.” This confusion was probably because of the pressures of the first stage of creating Column Eight in readiness to undertake the march westward, down onto the plains from the Sierra Maestra.
September 1958
1
We left in three trucks and a jeep amidst a wild storm caused by the hurricane, but it became impossible to continue on because the rain made the road impassable. The vanguard continued the journey in a truck that was able to proceed, despite the bogs, thanks to the help of some tractors.1
2
We spent the day separated, as the vanguard had gone farther ahead. It rained all afternoon making the roads impassable. The trucks were completely abandoned and we continued the march on foot, with a few men on horseback, arriving at Pagan’s rice field from where we continued our journey after eating something, reaching the Cauto [River] near dawn; but the river had risen so high that we couldn’t cross that night.
3
We began crossing the river this morning and it took until the afternoon. The horses couldn’t cross the river but we got others to take the weight of the backpacks and transport some of those who were barefoot. At the colonel’s farm,2 with Camilo and Ramiro, we held an investigation about the situation with Carlos Borjas. We decided to send him back to the Sierra Maestra with the pertinent accusations. We left rather late and succeeded in getting a little more than half the way along the Salado River, which we couldn’t cross due to the general flooding. Magadán3 has already left as our guide and he’s been replaced by a former Rural Guard from this area called Concepción Rivero.4 The same night we continued on an exhausting journey, splashing through mud until we reached the Salado [River], which couldn’t be crossed at night because it was swollen.
4
The beasts of burden crossed at daybreak and the men crossed gradually and were ready to leave at dusk. We found Camilo, whose people came by truck. At 6:30 we continued traveling for another long stretch, prolonged by difficult crossings of swollen rivers where we had to strip off everything and swim across. We reached Concepción at dawn, the barracks of our guide Concepción [a former Rural Guard].
5
We left at daybreak, after a shower of rain, on a journey of seven leagues through swamps, with half the troop on foot but without backpacks.
6
At dawn we reached the Leonero rice farm where the owner lives.5 We discussed the tax on rice that didn’t please them, and we also spoke with the workers, where we found a very good response. We urged them to form a union to present their demands. At night we continued traveling on a tractor and horseback, going some eight kilometers.
7
I found that the men had remained almost half way back along the road and had to wake them up and get them to leave at a fast pace, through some grasslands during the day, reaching Camilo López’s house,6 where we made camp. We continued in darkness with a few more horses through grasslands until we got to the Bartes [Barttle] rice farm that the vanguard had already taken over in the afternoon. There we were informed of some trucks that were nearby, so we sent someone to find them, but they couldn’t be found; we wasted the night waiting for some food. We retreated during the day to a nearby wood.
8
We set out at night, without any news of Camilo, traveling by horse and car until dawn.
9
When the second vehicle came we got the news that there had been an encounter when the vanguard fell into an ambush, resulting in the death of Marcos Borrero,7 an old compañero who had reached the rank of captain. (He had been demoted at Las Vegas because of an unjustified report by Horacio Rodríguez.) We had to send the cavalry to hide in La Federal woods, while we set up a good ambush with a bazooka. The telephone line was cut rather late. Nevertheless, we detained a trailer-truck and I was told the telephone doesn’t work and that there are six guardsmen. When I arrive Ramiro tells me that the Rural Guards are entrenched in the house of the owner, Remigio Fernández. El Vaquerito and Ángel Frías attack the house and then the Acevedo brothers enter; the younger one is wounded. The Guards surrender; there are three still alive, three dead and one escaped. There are seven Springfields.
Reinforcements arrive, and on Camilo’s advice we withdraw; the small plane machine-guns the combat area and our men shoot at it. Darsio [Dalcio] Gutiérrez receives a fatal wound and dies very soon. The Guards try to advance again but are repelled; we cause them some casualties but I can’t say how many. We decide to leave tonight and we have a rough trip until we reach Laguna Baja, where Camilo and I make camp.
10
We decide to leave anyway and to release Enrique Acevedo, whose wound prevents him from continuing with us. Our contacts from Camagüey arrive and we can send him out with them. They promise five big cars but only four small ones arrive and we can’t all fit. Camilo goes alone with the cars and leaves me the horses. This way we can all go on horseback and we travel four leagues over bad trails, finally reaching the farm of Faldigueras [del Diablo]8 at dawn.
11
We spend the day on the farm without any new developments and at night, after a difficult but short trip, we arrive at a farm near El Junco. Ramiro took a different route due to a mistake by the guides.
12
We left on a short journey in
which the only accident worth mentioning was the loss of my veteran cap in the mud. On arriving at San Miguel [del Junco] we found three trucks and the possibility of getting more, but there wasn’t a single guide, so we had to leave the trip for tomorrow.
13
With the indecision common to people who aren’t accustomed to such things, the guides didn’t show up and the men were pissed off. We finally left around 11:00 at night, after problems in obtaining the trucks. We first went to a farm to take some jeeps and then continued with the uncertainty of not knowing where there might be ambushes and whether or not the river was swollen. However we had no problems until we reached an oil well where we were given vague reports of soldiers on the road, but no one knew exactly where. We reached a place known as Cuatro Compañeros, where the vanguard reported that there were Rural Guards. At that moment we heard a couple of shots and I ordered everyone to hit the deck.
14
As soon as it was light, we were able to head to some woods on the other side of the railroad line where it was a struggle to get the troop across; Captain Silva was wounded.9 Some of the men were afraid of the small plane and stayed on the other side. I gave the order to wait for them, but we decided to withdraw under the fire of the air force, which caused us two casualties: Juan Hernández, who died after his leg was destroyed by a bomb, [and another man].10 We withdrew without any problem and regrouped in a house where, on roll call, we realized we were missing 11 men; but although separated, the men were well focused.
We left at 3:00 in the morning heading toward a small patch of marabú,11 which we reached at dawn without having had a bite to eat.
15
We spend the whole day in the scrubland where we cooked in a nearby little house and slept. We were joined by some of the men who had become separated; now only 10 men are missing and only one whose whereabouts we don’t know: Morenito, from Angelito’s squadron.
16
Some peasant guides join us. I speak to the troop explaining the dangers we are exposed to and the necessity of maintaining a rigid discipline to avoid these dangers. We leave at night and headed toward Remedios where we made a small purchase in the company store; we then spent some time at the rice farm of [Emilio] Cadenas where they had prepared a meal for us. At dawn, we reached a patch of marabú in the area of Sabanilla. We had surrounded the Rural Guards from below, but they remained just a league away from us. It was the point of greatest danger.
17
Morning found us reaching at another patch of marabú where we spent the day. We detained a presumed snitch called Efraín [Ibraín] Manso; then after eating a cow, we set out on the road again, bordering the rice field where they told us there were no longer any guardsmen. On arriving at a friendly house along the way, we received a note from Camilo that told me the route he was taking and where to find nine of the 10 men separated from the column. The only one missing is the one called “Morenito” who presumably is dead.
18
We ate really well, hidden in a small patch of marabú, and we sent a patrol to explore the coast because apparently there was a charcoal barge capable of transporting all of us. But in the evening they returned to the camp reporting that they found nothing like that, but that there had been Rural Guards on our trail and that they had already passed by our camp of the day before.12 We released the suspected snitch because there seems to be a land dispute at the heart of the accusation against him. We continued the journey to Laguna de Guano where we camped in another patch of marabú.
19
We left on a short journey of four leagues to end up in a small patch of scrubland where we have to wait for the results of the exploration, as apparently there are Rural Guards in one place on the way.
20
The guides brought good news as far as the presence of troops goes, but no guides could be found farther than a few leagues away. This afternoon the radio broadcast a press interview with [General] Tabernilla13 in which he claimed to have destroyed a group of more than 100 men led by a “Che Guevara.” They claimed to know all the guerrillas’ evidently communist plans. We walked to the San Pedro River, but decided to stop until the next day for want of a [local] guide.
21
We obtained some reluctant guides who took us to the banks of the Durán River or Altamira, where they left us, with nobody to fall back on and without food. We only had some roast meat [with us].
22
I sent Manuel [Hernández Osorio] to look for a trail, and in a while a Mr. Barreto came along, a millionaire from Camagüey and the owner of a large farm. He showed us a place where we could camp called Chicharrón [Cimarrón]. We sent out to look for a guide suspected of being a Batista supporter who hadn’t made a bad impression on me. The people who went out to look for food were told that there were Guards spread out along the entire [railroad] line. The foreman advised us not to try to pass by today given the late hour. During the crossing of the river one of the new recruits deserted.
23
At nightfall we set out on the trail to the railroad line taking a guide and the foreman’s brother as a prisoner to avoid any possible betrayal. We crossed the line and walked a couple of leagues more until we reached a small river called Las Yeguas, where we slept.
24
We located a son of Juan Amanza,14 who provided us with some food and a cow. When we took a roll call we noticed that a man from Fonso’s squadron was missing: Pepe Pérez, who presumably had deserted with his weapon. After applying some pressure, we got [some local people] to provide us with a guide who enabled us to cross a causeway and reach the home of the foreman of the Aguilera company, who installed us in a little wood where we awoke the next morning.
25
We didn’t march the whole day or night, recovering our strength, and we ate two cows. We tried to make contact with a storekeeper who had shown himself to be a partisan of ours, arranging to meet with him in the same place. We heard cannon fire and possibly machine guns further along the route we intended to take.
26
This morning the man didn’t show up, and when we went to investigate we learned that he had taken off with his whole family. We mobilized the whole group, anticipating a betrayal, but nothing happened. The man had shown himself to be very helpful and had checked out the beach to see if there were any boats, although without success. At night we ate, but we couldn’t leave.
27
We left before dawn and walked all day and all night until the early morning hours and reached a spot, presumably Aguilera. We didn’t eat all day except for gofio [toasted flour] with milk. During the march we were seen by a peasant who escaped, causing us to keep marching all night.
28
At noon we detained the foreman [Manuel Lezcano Borrego] in charge of livestock of the rice farm belonging to Leopoldo Aguilera, who told us where we were, and that there had been no Rural Guards there since the previous day. We had him kill a couple of cows and sent the point men of the vanguard to occupy a house that’s on the causeway that goes to Florida. One of the newly incorporated men, whom I’d known from before, went with him. After a couple of hours we detained another foreman [from Cayo Toro], who said he had orders to give us whatever we needed. Then we took over the hamlet with a squadron and, in addition to making a large request, we ordered a meal. At nightfall we went to the foreman’s house where we ate a cow and rice; and after dividing up some supplies we went to the hamlet where we ate again. I also sent out to look for more supplies in the hamlet of the other [Guillermo] Aguilera, a buddy of Batista’s, which delayed our departure until 2:00 in the morning. I spoke with the administrator [Diego Casarreal], explaining to him the essence of our economic policy and our guarantee to protect the rice industry for him to transmit this information to his boss. At 4:00 in the morning, after abandoning the tractors that took us a couple of leagues, we entered a wooded area.
29
We continued the march without stopping, but in the early morning a small plane was maki
ng circles above us. We had to stop to get some sleep and to explore. The guide we had brought didn’t know where he was. In the middle of the afternoon we continued walking, taking some precautions, but when we reached the Baraguá [railroad] line we heard a shot. This forced us to change our route. We didn’t realize that we were right on the line. Some soldiers advanced and Rodríguez,15 a lieutenant from the rearguard, fired at them. It wasn’t until well into the night that I learned that the railroad line was thoroughly reinforced. We couldn’t go any farther, so we had to return and go into the swamp where we spent the night.
30
We walked a few more kilometers and then stopped. We have food for three days, including today. Scouts were sent out who showed that the line of fire covers the entire wood, but there’s a lagoon that is free and Acevedo and Willy, together with the guide, went to reconnoiter.16 It was decided that Cabrera17 would go to Ciego de Ávila to ask for help in the form of guides.
1. The vanguard traveled in the truck belonging to Rubén Blanco.
2. Arcadio Peláez Cabales, “the colonel,” was the foreman of El Jardín farm in Bayamo and an effective collaborator with the Rebel Army.
3. José Magadán Barandita (Pepín) was the supply chief of the Sierra Maestra whom Fidel ordered to support Che’s column’s departure through his contacts in the area. He served as a guide as far as Camagüey.
4. The new guide was a first lieutenant of a rebel group in that area and served as a guide from the Cauto River.
5. The property of Clemente Pérez Bore who was closely tied to the Batista dictatorship.
6. Actually the home belonged to a son of Camilo López, located in the Santa Isabel de Virama hamlet in Bayamo.
7. Marcos Borrero Fonseca died in the battle of La Federal, in Camagüey province, one of the bloodiest battles of the westward journey, in which several compañeros of the column were wounded or died.
8. The old rice farm of Bajuelo on the municipal border of Santa Cruz del Sur.