In 1966 - 67, he led a nucleus of revolutionaries from Bolivia, Cuba, and Peru who fought to overthrow the military dictatorship in Bolivia. In the process, they sought to forge a Latin America-wide movement of workers and peasants that could lead the battle for land reform and against U.S. imperialist domination of the continent and advance the struggle for socialism. Guevara was wounded and captured on Oct. 8, 1967. He was shot the next day by the Bolivian military, after consultation with Washington.

As part of the commemoration of this anniversary in Cuba, dozens of articles, speeches, and interviews by those who worked with Che are being published, dealing with the Cuban revolution, its impact in world politics, and the actions of its leadership.

Many of Guevara's collaborators and family members have spoken at conferences and other meetings, bringing Che to life for a new generation and explaining the importance of his rich political legacy today. These materials contain many valuable firsthand accounts and information, some of which are being written down and published for the first time. They are part of the broader discussion taking place in Cuba today on how to advance the revolution.

The Militant is reprinting a selection of these contributions as a weekly feature, under the banner "Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution."

Below we reprint an interview with Leonardo Tamayo that appeared in the Cuban magazine Tricontinental, in a special issue devoted to Ernesto Che Guevara. As a peasant youth in Cuba's Sierra Maestra, Tamayo joined the Rebel Army in Cuba in 1957 and served in Guevara's column. He fought with Che in Bolivia under the nomme de guerre Urbano, and later carried out internationalist missions in Nicaragua and Angola. This selection is reprinted by permission of Tricontinental. Translation and footnotes are by the Militant.

Leonardo Tamayo, known as "Urbano" in the Bolivian guerrilla unit, is one of the three Cuban survivors who escaped and returned to Cuba after Che's death. Tamayo met the Heroic Guerrilla for the first time at the age of 15 when he joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra, remaining with his commander as aide and bodyguard after 1959. He was with Che in Bolivia from November 1966 until October 1967.

The journalist José Mayo includes a long and lively interview with Leonardo Tamayo in his book With Che in Cuba and Bolivia, soon to be released by the Cuban publishing house Capitán San Luis. We are reproducing four excerpts from that book: the first time Tamayo spoke with Commander Guevara; the discussion between Che and Bolivian Communist Party leader Mario Monje; the capture of the Samaipata barracks, and the news of Che's murder.

The first encounter
Through other guerrillas of peasant origin who I met in the Sierra Maestra, I'd begun to know about the audacity and courage in battle of the Argentine Ernesto Guevara. I knew he had been a Granma expeditionary,(1) and that because of his way of speaking he was called Che.

The rebels used to say that Che had a lot of guts because he always faced the enemy standing up, without fear of bullets. One day I asked him why he fought on his feet, since it was more dangerous. He answered me that he had once been shot in the foot, and that if he'd been lying down the bullet would have got him in the head. He told me this a few months after I joined his command-post squad in Column no. 4.

What I had heard about Che made me picture him as a hero of legends, and that's why I wanted to be with him in battle. So I spoke with Lalo Sardiñas, and told him I wanted to fight alongside Che. He agreed. Then I went to Altos de Conrado, where they had told me I would find Che. When I saw him for the first time I didn't think it was Che, because I had imagined him to be very different physically. At that time he was really thin and smoked a pipe.

Since I had been told by some people that Che wasn't very talkative, I decided not to try to speak to him. Fidel had already named him a commander and head of Column no. 4. The first person I met who was under Che's direct command in Altos de Conrado was Hugo del Río. When he learned I had been fighting with Lalo Sardiñas he took me to see Che. Che looked at me and asked: "And what are you doing here?!"

Meeting between Che and Monje
Soon after we were settled in this place [the Main Camp, eight kilometers from the Ñancahuazú farm in Bolivia], on December 31, 1966, Che met with Mario Monje, general secretary of the Bolivian Communist Party, at Camp no. 1. Guido Peredo, Coello, René Martínez Tamayo, and I were with Che. When Monje saw Che he said, "Jesus, Che, look how skinny you are!" And Che shot back: "Jesus, Monje, look how paunchy you are!"

That's how they greeted each other. They talked for a long time about different things and then started discussing the armed struggle in Bolivia.

The last part of the conversation is engraved in my mind as though it were a tape recording.

Che said to Monje:

"Well, Monje, the moment we've been waiting for so much has come. It's fallen to you to play a part in the history of Bolivia's liberation. You'll be the second in command of the guerrilla force and the political officer.

He answered Che:

"Look, Che, I won't permit a foreigner to lead the armed struggle in my country. You must hand over the military and political command to me. You can be my adviser."

Che's response wasn't long in coming.

"Look, Monje, I don't like the role of adviser in this struggle because I believe it would mean shirking responsibilities somewhat, and I've never liked to do that."

Monje again replied to Che:

"Che, if it were any other country, I would carry your knapsack. But in my country, I can't permit a foreigner to lead the armed struggle."

With a firm and determined voice, Che put Monje in his place:

"Monje, that's a false conception of internationalism. It's as though I were in Argentina, in the situation you're in with me, and Fidel arrived. I would immediately subordinate myself to him because he knows more than I do."

Monje made a dismissive gesture and said,

"Che, I would not hand over command even if it were Lenin."

Che then asked him in a sarcastic voice:

"And if it were Malinovsky?"(2)

Monje was quiet for a few minutes, then suddenly blurted out:

"Che, you know that the CIA is powerful. At any moment they can have an agent infiltrate our ranks and they'll know right away that I'm not the commander, but just a puppet."

Che finally understood Monje's lust for power, and said to him:

"Look, Monje, if that's what's bothering you, I promise to get up early every morning, stand at attention in front of you, and say, `Commander, give me my orders for the day,' and that way we can satisfy the CIA agent."

The meeting lasted several hours, but they never reached agreement. Monje asked Che to give him some time to think about what they had talked about, and Che agreed. Then Che invited Monje to go with him to the Main Camp to eat a typical Cuban dinner. After the meal, Monje asked Che to let him meet with the Bolivians in the guerrilla movement. One of them, Lorgio Vaca Marchetti, left that meeting and told Che that Monje ought to be shot, because he was threatening to expel them from the Bolivian Communist Party and not provide any kind of financial aid to their families if they didn't quit the guerrilla movement. There were a number of Bolivians in that meeting who opposed Monje, among them the Peredo Leigue brothers. The next day Monje left the Main Camp and we never saw him again. Che met with all the guerrillas and assured them that Monje's negative stance would not stand in the way of the armed struggle in Bolivia.

Occupation of the Bolivian army barracks in Samaipata(3)
Ricardo, Pacho, Coco, Ernesto (Freddy Maymura Hurtado), Julio (Mario Gutiérrez Ardays), and Chino (Juan Pablo Chang Navarro) took part in this action. On the outskirts of Samaipata they seized a truck to get to town and on arriving they saw that the barracks chief, a Bolivian army lieutenant, was sitting in the village park. They detained this officer and then Ricardo, Pacho, and Coco went with him to the barracks, where there were 10 soldiers. The other guerrillas went to buy food and medicine. When they reached the door of the barracks, which was closed, the lieutenant gave the password, followed by the counterpassword. As soon as the door was opened the three guerrillas rushed in and ordered everyone not to move. One soldier tried to open fire but Pacho got him with a rifle shot. They took all the weapons from the barracks and loaded all the soldiers onto the truck. Once outside Samaipata they were released, wearing only their underwear.

Although Che approved of the Samaipata action, he criticized those who took part for not having brought the necessary food or medicines, especially the medication he needed for his asthma, which he was suffering from very much in those days. Later we heard that the villagers had ridiculed the soldiers when they appeared in town wearing only their underpants.

During that time we heard over the radio that the leader of Bolivia's military regime had announced that Che was at the head of the guerrilla movement, and that the army was carrying out an offensive to wipe out the guerrillas. From then on the army's pursuit of the guerrilla unit got more intense.

On Che's death(4)
We had a feeling they were going to murder Che, like they had done with other captured guerrillas, because Che alive was a great threat to the imperialists and their allies. Had they put him on trial, the accused would have been transformed into the accuser, charging them with being enemies of the Latin America peoples. That same day we heard over a number of Bolivian radio stations that Che had died in battle. We all understood that the Bolivian army had killed him on orders from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but no one imagined that the crime had been committed in La Higuera, because if we had known Che was there we wouldn't have hesitated to try to rescue him, even though it would have been a suicide mission.

1. The Granma was the yacht in which Fidel Castro, Guevara, and 80 other members of the July 26 Movement sailed to Cuba in November-December 1956 to initiate the revolutionary war against the Batista dictatorship.

2. Gen. Rodion Malinovsky was Soviet defense minister and commander of its land forces.

3. On July 6, 1967, a guerrilla squad captured and briefly occupied Samaipata, the capital of Florida province in Bolivia, causing an international sensation.

4. Guevara was wounded and captured Oct.8, 1967. After consulting Washington, the Bolivian government ordered his execution, which took place the following day at the La Higuera schoolhouse. Not knowing Guevara's fate, Urbano and the other five remaining guerrilla combatants had been within sight of the schoolhouse the night of October 8.  
 
 
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