Diary of a Combatant Page 6
February 1957
1
It was a cold and windy day with no sign of a meeting. We did not explore in the morning because we were still tired from the march the day before. At around 11:00 in the morning, we heard an exchange of gunfire coming from the other side of the hill and then, closer to us, pitiful cries that sounded like someone calling for help. All these things destroyed Sergio Acuña’s spirit and at noon, silently, he left the camp, leaving behind his weapon, cartridge belt and blanket. He took with him a peasant’s hat, a can of condensed milk and three sausages.
After a while we heard a noise and, as we prepared to defend ourselves, Crescencio showed up with a long column composed of almost all our people and the Manzanillo group. From our group, we are missing Sergio Acuña, deserter,1 Manuel Acuña, alleged deserter, Calixto Morales and Calixto García and the guy who had just joined [Evangelista Mendoza], who was lost in the shoot-out against el Gallego. We ate malanga and pork together there and then went down by the same route until we reached a clearing where we saw lights in the valley below.
We slept in the forest to continue the next day. The people from Manzanillo said the report about the seizure of supplies was not true. They had brought a good part of it, including surgical equipment and changes of clothes for everyone. This was all well hidden in the woods. I got underwear and t-shirts with insignia embroidered by the girls in Santiago. The composition of the group that joined Fidel was: Ramirito, whose leg is more or less better now, Rudy [Beto] Pesant, who had left us at El Mulato, and returned; Yayo, who had been sick at El Mulato, now recovered; Emilio Escaney [Escanelle], Adalberto Pesant, Antonio Fernández García, Lenis Ramírez Folgado, Juventino [blank space in the original] and Rafael Labrada, whom we had taken prisoner on a farm and who later joined the group voluntarily. Adalberto Pesant is the head of the group. Esteban Echevarría and Ciro [Frías] Cabrera went to Purial a few days ago and have not come back this way.
2
Today marks two months since the landing at Belice [Belic]. There are no developments worthy of note on this day; the guides reconnoitered while we slept. At 6:00 p.m. we begin to descend down the slope to then take the path that we had been on with Guillermo the day before. Guillermo and Labrada, the latest peasant to join, went on reconnaissance without clearly establishing where we would meet afterwards; the result is that we cannot find them anywhere. I went with Camilo to the little house where they had given us food the other day, but they weren’t there either. We slept in an abandoned hut and for the first time I was able to sleep in a bed, as one had been hidden in a banana grove.
32
At 5:00 in the morning we set out, without a fixed course and without Guillermo García.3
Notebook II
[February 3 continued] We soon came to an unoccupied hut where our presence had the same effect as a bomb exploding, but nevertheless they gave us boiled plantains, the only thing we had to eat all day. We crossed La Derecha Creek and continued to climb uphill to reach the property of old Eustaquio [Eligio Mendoza]. But Crescencio made a mistake and we walked all day without finding the hut, finally camping on a ridge of the same hill.
4
At night I had one of my sporadic attacks of malaria and by dawn I was completely exhausted, so I couldn’t continue the march. El Guajiro4 Luis Crespo and Julio Acosta stayed behind to accompany me. About three hours later I tried walking, but very slowly and stopping frequently because I had fainting spells. Julio then went ahead to ask for someone to return to carry my pack in order to lighten Crespo’s load because he was carrying it. I continued to advance haltingly and suffering terrible diarrhea, having to go 10 times this day. When the sun set we reached a place that seemed to be very poor; we made a camp right there, putting up with a downpour all night that fortunately did not make us very wet.
5
We made a mistake in our direction, but fortunately we soon corrected our course. I had very little energy to walk so our progress was very slow. At around 11:30 a patrol commanded by Raúl found us. He brought chicken soup, which worked wonders on me. We reached the camp and I then went down to the house to sleep beside el Gallego, who had a bad leg and, according to him, a fever. That afternoon a group led by Crescencio set off for La Habanita. In it were: Crescencio’s son Ignacio, Ramiro, whose knee is not yet perfect, Benítez, Pancho, Chao, Rudy Pesant, Antonio Fernández and Jesús Ramírez, who sounded a discordant note by claiming that he had been lied to, saying that he had been told he was going to a camp with a lot of anti-aircraft defenses and he would not have to walk like a mule, without food or water. Everyone will stay here to recover and be reserve troops, while the best ones will remain with us.
At midnight Enamorado, the owner of the house, woke us to say that troops on horseback were coming and, of course, we exited rapidly with all our stuff, but it was a false alarm. We slept the rest of the night at the kitchen.
6
The day passed with no activity, except for the arrival of Ciro Frías, who came with Echevarría bringing three new volunteers, a cousin, Signio Frías, and two brothers, Enrique and Miguel Díaz.5 They brought very good news: Faustino has collected $30,000 and hopes to make it to $50,000; sabotage was continuing throughout the island; Díaz Tamayo6 seems to be inclined to do somersaults. Intercepted army communications and news from other sources all indicate there is great discontent. They also brought news of a sad but instructive incident. Sergio Acuña had gone to the house of some cousins and told them a hundred tales about his exploits and the weapons he had. The result was that someone called Pedro Herrera snitched on him, and the Rural Guards came, with Corporal Roselló in command. They took Sergio, tortured him, shot him four times and then hung him. It is likely that he talked a lot so we have to leave Florentino’s house as it was one of the ones he knew about. El Gallego Morán is sick, half real and half his inveterate theatrics. Eutimio left and brought back 50 cans of milk and some cigars.
7
After a good lunch we set off without a clear destination, leaving the house behind. In reality, what we did was march a couple of kilometers and made camp by the bed of a dry creek. As the sun was setting, a commission headed by Ciro Frías went to his house to get some food. Universo, Julio Acosta, Echevarría and Ciro’s cousin, Signio, also went. Shortly after they set off an enormous downpour began, wiping out our precarious defenses against the rain. We were forced to sleep half wet and most uncomfortable for the entire night.
8
The first light of day brought the welcome surprise of five hens transformed into a stew by the expeditionary group and a jar of sugar. They also brought various preserves, beer and grain. The men brought the news that they had seen Eutimio in a nearby house where they had gone to ask for the key to Ciro’s house. Eutimio had gone on the pretext of collecting some bullets he had left behind when he was buying milk, so his presence in that house was neither justified nor authorized.
We spent the day quietly, in the morning listening to the air force bombardment of Caracas Peak. At dusk, as we were finishing the French class with Raúl, it started to rain with the same persistence and pernicious effects as on the previous day. As soon as it stopped raining we went to the kitchen where, under Guillermo’s direction, the wood was beginning to burn. By nearly 10:00 a bad vegetable stew with cassava was served, which people devoured and then began the second shift, the morning one, composed of rice, beans and vegetables. Luis Crespo and I stayed to help the cooks and we went to bed at around 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
9
It seemed as though there would be no new developments except for pillaging expeditions, with Ciro and el Guajiro Luis initiating one.7 But at around 11:00 in the morning, Labrada captured as prisoners someone called [blank space in the original],8 who turned out to be a cousin of Crescencio’s, and Celestino’s sales clerk [León], the storekeeper who supplied the cans of milk; this man indicated that there were 140 men at Celestino’s place. The [Rural Guards] were on a bare ridge and could be
seen leaving in formation. At the same time we questioned the prisoner we took the top of the hill, waiting also for the return of the two compañeros and Eutimio, whose strange behavior was becoming more suspicious. Furthermore, the prisoner reported that Eutimio himself had said that the zone would be bombed the next day.
At 1:30 we decided to leave the rearguard with Almeida and Julio while the rest of us climbed to a nearby ridge to await developments. A little later Ciro and el Guajiro came back; they hadn’t seen anything strange. We were discussing this when Ciro Redondo thought he saw and heard something. I was further away and not paying attention when a shot was fired and then a volley; immediately there were volleys and explosions due to a concentrated attack on our previous camp site. The camp was empty except for a pile of abandoned backpacks and I found myself alone. I ran toward my backpack but I had left it in a mess when I took out the blanket, and in the rush to get it together in a hurry two machine-gun or M-1 rounds landed a couple of meters from where I was standing. I thought the fire was directed at me and I took off with only the blanket I had around my shoulders. I left the books, the medicine, a rifle and all my belongings; by the time I reacted and realized the bullets had been random, it was too late and I was very ashamed. While I was with Almeida in the rearguard two more bullets struck nearby.
The group that fled wound up with 12 men: Almeida, Julito [Díaz], Universo, Cienfuegos, Guillermo, Ciro Frías, Motolá, Pesant, Emilio, Labrada, Yayo and I. We took an oblique path away from Tatequieto Hill, which is where we were to go in case we were dispersed, then return, crossing the river, and head for the Sierra Maestra. Those chasing us were close by. We heard isolated M-1 shots that were not far away from where we were headed. At 5:15 we came to a clearing where there was no undergrowth. After hesitating, we decided to wait for the guardsmen there. If they came we would open fire; if not, we would wait for darkness and then go on. Fortunately they did not come and we were able to continue on our way with Ciro as our guide. Earlier, Julio and Universo had proposed that we divide into two patrols to move more quickly and leave fewer traces of our passing, but we opposed it in order to keep the group together. We followed a stream down until we reached the Limones River, which we followed for a while and then took a path that brought us to some dense scrubland, where we remained for the night.
10
A day of total quiet. Labrada went to communicate with Fidel at El Lomón, and then to meet up with us at La Habanita with Fidel’s orders. That night we took a short hike from Dos Hermanas, where we had been, to La Habanita, where we slept.
11
We spent the day a short distance away from where we had slept. We committed a gross mistake by walking along the top of the hill in broad daylight, with no cover, but fortunately there were no consequences. We found a black man who was friends with Guillermo and who gave us a couple of meals. We were unable to reach the place where we had agreed to meet up with Labrada, and when we did get there at night, he wasn’t there. We walked the whole first part of the night, until 1:00 a.m., when we lay down near the path. We could see El Lomón from the place where we slept.
12
When we got up and headed for a wooded area, we realized that it wasn’t deserted as Ciro had assured us but, on the contrary, there were several huts nearby. However, they were abandoned and we were able to pass without problems, even though a small group that included me, Motolá, Emilio and Pesant lost our way for half an hour. We began the uphill climb through the scrubland, reaching the top by midday where we found traces left by our people. At almost 2:00 p.m. we came to a clearing high on a hill from where we could see Raúl [Barroso’s] house below. Ciro and Emilio [Escanelle] went to the house and, not finding anyone there, went to another nearby house where friends gave them a frugal meal for all of us and passed on the news that Fidel was at La Derecha de la Caridad with seven men.
In addition, it is now confirmed that Eutimio Guerra has been the snitch and, not only that, it was he who had ordered the attack on our cooking site in the belief that the whole troop would be there. The tale begins after Palma Mocha, when they detained him at a bar, where they offered him his life, $10,000 and a position in the Rural Guard if he would kill Fidel. He then looked for us, joined up and then left on the pretext about his sick mother. After hearing that the [air] attack had failed, he searched for us again until he found us at the house of Florentino [Enamorado]. He sent word that we would be at a place known as El Burro. But since our plans changed, he had to leave again, on another pretext, and orchestrated the attack that would have wiped us out, but which failed due to our timely withdrawal on Fidel’s orders.
In addition, it was said that Julio [Zenón] Acosta9 had died and a Rural Guard had been killed, and that there were several wounded, information that needs to be confirmed. In 55 minutes we reached the place where Fidel was waiting for us. We were reunited with him, Raúl, Ameijeiras, Ciro, Fajardo, Echevarría and el Gallego Morán, who seems to have been cured of his previous ailments. That night we went to sleep at a house in a neighborhood where all the families were related to each other.10
13
At mid-morning we had a succulent breakfast of pork and vegetables that upset our stomachs even more because the pork of the day before had already had its effect. The day was marked by two events: first, the desertion of el Gallego Morán, the very same person who conquered hills and soldiers quietly left his equipment behind, apparently following the footprints of Echevarría, who had set out for Manzanillo on foot. Second, the admission of a new member [Luis Barreras], a teacher, who claimed to have fought at Moncada, a complete charlatan. The questioning showed that he had not fought there and his problem was a team of oxen he had stolen or that were assumed to have been stolen. He confessed in order to leave the area as his neighbors suspected him, or rather, his loquaciousness, but he was warned about not violating discipline. We were to have departed in the evening, but finally decided to leave in the morning.
14
Early, after a succulent breakfast, we left walking slowly in the direction of La Habanita, the house of Domingo Torres, Crescencio’s relative, and a friend of Eutimio’s. We wanted to let people know about Eutimio’s betrayal and to get a feel for Domingo Torres’s reaction. When we came to a clearing, we heard nearby machine-gun fire and explosions, alternating with isolated rifle shots. The shooting lasted for half an hour, leaving me perplexed about its origins. The approximate location was El Piñonal, near La Habanita.
We continued on our way and found a blanket, a copy of Selecciones11 and boots that seemed to have been those belonging to Ramirito Valdés. What was indisputable was that our people had been there. When we came to the valley of a dry creek, the guide went to investigate, to see if he could find friends living nearby, at a place called Cayo Probado. Soon after he left a torrential downpour began, soaking most of us because we had very little rainproof gear. After an hour of rain Dionisio the guide returned with the welcome news that we were close to the house and that he had already ordered food. We arrived a short while later, and we ate and slept there. The owner, Diógenes Suárez, reported that 15 of our men had been at Domingo’s house, but had left three days ago heading to an unknown destination; he said that the shooting we had heard had only happened once before, on February 9. It seems clear that, thanks to Eutimio’s betrayal, it was an ambush of our people. But who? Crescencio, those missing from the last dispersal, the people from Manzanillo or Havana?
15
It now seems that all the noise we heard was simply people from Piñoral practicing. At least that’s what the owner of the house says; he went to inquire near the disturbance. During the whole afternoon we heard the firing of mortar rounds. The noise seemed to be coming from various directions, but the most widely accepted thesis was that they were firing at Dos Hermanas Hill, which we had passed through several days ago. When it was time to eat a delicious chilindrón12 of goat, we had an unexpected visitor: el Gallego, with another of his stories. He said that
while he was going hunting he saw Eutimio near the camp and he followed him the entire day until he became lost and was unable to return to the camp that day.
The truth is that Dionisio Oliva, who had brought el Gallego, said that Eutimio had been by his house, but the day after that mentioned by el Gallego. At that time Dionisio was with us, so he could not bring Eutimio to us because the idiot stubbornly hangs on the belief that we don’t suspect him. He told Juan, Dionisio’s brother, that he was with the Rural Guards and that he had a plan to kill Fidel with one of the two grenades he had and to clear the way with the other. El Gallego, who was at Juan’s house, was ready to kill Fidel but Juan was against it, according to el Gallego Morán’s own version, to avoid a scandal in the neighborhood. It is very difficult to know for sure what el Gallego is thinking, but I believe he was trying to desert but had to abandon the attempt against Fidel because he couldn’t find Echevarría, who presumably would have been his guide. I recommended he be shot then and there, but Fidel put off the matter.
When night fell we left the prieto’s [dark skinned guy’s] hospitable home and headed toward Epifanio’s place. On the road, we came upon Domingo Guerra’s store and, as there was no one there, we went in and discovered a paradise of canned food. We ate as much as we could and, after leaving traces of our passing in the opposite direction, we continued our march.
At 3:00 in the morning we passed through a hamlet called El Jíbaro, and a little later we reached a small wood that belonged to old Epifanio. We camped there and I ate two large cans of sardines that upset my stomach. We slept only a few hours because we only lay down at 4:30 a.m.
16
We stationed ourselves in some bushes on the edge of Epifanio’s farm and we sent Ciro to gather information; he returned immediately with good news. Luis Crespo, Juventino, two of Epifanio’s sons [Enrique and Miguel Díaz] and Ciro’s cousin came with him. Juventino had a slight wound in one finger that had been grazed by a bullet. Frank [País] and Celia Sánchez13 came from Manzanillo and Santiago. We went to the camp, which was a few meters from ours, and proceeded to distribute treats which, of course, provoked a bout of indigestion. Frank’s sister, Vilma,14 arrived late in the afternoon with Haydée Santamaría and her husband Armando Hart. From various conversations I detected apparent anticommunist sentiments in most of them, especially Hart.15