Che Guevara and the CIA

[John Dolva]

John;

"Although the US assistance in the hunt for Che, as well as probable involvement in his final death, are most likely the reasons for his relatively rapid failure in Bolivia, lack of support is ultimate the condition which aided those who searched him down."

Tom, I agree, though possibly in degree

"Che had, for all purposes, failed to acquire any support in his attempt to form a guerilla army and revolution.

What becomes extremely critical is the fact that even the various Communist organizations which were firmly entrenced in Bolivia, also did not support Che, and there is no firm records of his attempts to secure the assistance of these in-country organizations.

Therefore, unlike the Castro/Cuba events which recognized the absolute necessity of having some "strings attached" to the support, Che appeared to want to accept no assistance which may have had strings attached."

I disagree.

Che had very real support and connections. His personal failure was getting killed. The likely hood of treason was heightened by pre-existing conditions. Likely a result of the Alliance for Progress and as you mention Other country support like West Germany.

At the same time vastly more numerous, logistic supported, armed forces were failing in Vietnam. Che had many many years of practical experiance in guerilla war fare, he was not an armchair revolutionary. Not just theory. He entered circumstances where the likely hood of betrayal was increased, yet even so not predestined. He was shaking the government and at times with a few hundred more fighters could very well have succeeded. His struggle in Bolivia was much more on a knife edge than Cuba and therefore the possibility of failure was greater. In that environment, unlike Vietnam, US action was probably critical.

Che's Diary as reprinted by Ramparts from translation of a copy given to Fidel by Bolivian minister (the consequence being the collapse of the Bolivian government) with a foreword by Fidel and photo copies of the diary and photographs including maps:

http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...|7|6|1|1|70123|

"In event that Che was "sent" to Bolivia, then he was sent to an intentional failure."

This is an interesting speculation, I have wondered so. Perhaps not sent as such. but 'guided'. Bears researching.

"In event that he "chose" Bolivia, then he completely ignored the lessons of Cuba as well as his own rules of doctrine."

Obviously I disagree for reasons stated.

Edited October 19, 2006 by John Dolva

[Thomas H. Purvis]

John;

"Although the US assistance in the hunt for Che, as well as probable involvement in his final death, are most likely the reasons for his relatively rapid failure in Bolivia, lack of support is ultimate the condition which aided those who searched him down."

Tom, I agree, though possibly in degree

"Che had, for all purposes, failed to acquire any support in his attempt to form a guerilla army and revolution.

What becomes extremely critical is the fact that even the various Communist organizations which were firmly entrenced in Bolivia, also did not support Che, and there is no firm records of his attempts to secure the assistance of these in-country organizations.

Therefore, unlike the Castro/Cuba events which recognized the absolute necessity of having some "strings attached" to the support, Che appeared to want to accept no assistance which may have had strings attached."

I disagree.

Che had very real support and connections. His personal failure was getting killed. The likely hood of treason was heightened by pre-existing conditions. Likely a result of the Alliance for Progress and as you mention Other country support like West Germany.

At the same time vastly more numerous, logistic supported, armed forces were failing in Vietnam. Che had many many years of practical experiance in guerilla war fare, he was not an armchair revolutionary. Not just theory. He entered circumstances where the likely hood of betrayal was increased, yet even so not predestined. He was shaking the government and at times with a few hundred more fighters could very well have succeeded. His struggle in Bolivia was much more on a knife edge than Cuba and therefore the possibility of failure was greater. In that environment, unlike Vietnam, US action was probably critical.

Che's Diary as reprinted by Ramparts from translation of a copy given to Fidel by Bolivian minister (the consequence being the collapse of the Bolivian government) with a foreword by Fidel and photo copies of the diary and photographs including maps:

http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/contents...|7|6|1|1|70123|

"In event that Che was "sent" to Bolivia, then he was sent to an intentional failure."

This is an interesting speculation, I have wondered so. Perhaps not sent as such. but 'guided'. Bears researching.

"In event that he "chose" Bolivia, then he completely ignored the lessons of Cuba as well as his own rules of doctrine."

Obviously I disagree for reasons stated.

John;

1. Che knew and had written of the importance and necessity of the physical health of the guerilla. Yet, he was severely impared due to his asthma, which had affected him since the age of two.

2. Prior to Che's arrival in Bolivia, there was a small nucleus of Bolivians who had been trained in the "Special Camps" in Cuba in 1962 and 1963.

However, even with these existing Bolivians, Che's forces never exceeded 51 guerrillas, with the total number of native Bolivians never being above 29, which included the original contingent that had been trained in Cuba.

In January 1967, Che wrote:

"Of all the things foreseen, the one that is going slowest is the recruitment of Bolivian Combatants"

Before the first conflict with the Bolivian army, two Bolivians had drowned and three had deserted, and Che himself stated that four of the remaing Bolivians were "dregs".

When one reads the diary of Che and his beginning of the training program, it is quite reminescent of the initial training of the Bay of Pigs group in Guatemala.

In Guatemala, one of the primary personnel fell off a cliff and was killed, and many of the trainees were frequently lost.

Che's initial training march resulted in the group getting lost in the Bolivian jungle, with the subsequent drowning of the two Bolivians as well as the desertion of three others.

When Che returned to the farm which had been purchased as a base camp he found that his "rear guard" had completely compromised the guerilla band.

In addition to going around asking questions from local residents who were friendly to the existing government, the rear guard had allowed Regis Debray, Tania (the female spy) and Carlos Fructuso (an Argentine) into the camp.

Regis Debray ultimately took photographs of many of the guerilla's, and these photograhs ultimately ended up in the hands of the CIA who thereafter provided exact descriptions of the guerillas to the Bolivian Ranger units that were later involved in elimination of the band.

3. After this, Che's band set about in establishment of various cache's of arms and equipment throughout the region, yet he not only allowed most of the guerilla force to know the exact location of these caches, but he even allowed many of them to keep their own diaries.

This also included having the Argentine (Carlos Fructuoso) with the force when many of these caches were made.

Later, when capturee, the diaries of these guerillas revealed critical information relative to locations of arms and equipments, and when Carlos Fructuoso (aka Ciro Bustos) was captured, he even provided information relative to the trails which the guerilla force utilized, additional information relative to cache locations, and even drew from memory some of the faces of members of the gurerilla force.

4. In March 1967 the guerilla force made it's first contact with the Bolivian forces, and although considered a defeat for the Bolivian forces, it neverless started the combat phase of the guerilla movement long before they, and even Che was prepared to do so.

The small force was, for all practical purposes, still in the training phase for what was to be the nucleus of the force, and even by this time additional recruitment was virtually zero.

Che himself wrote: "Evidently we will have to get going before I had thought and expected".

5. Shortly thereafter, Che split his small force into two groups, and was thereafter never able to reconsolidate his force.

This made it much easier for the larger manpower Bolivian Army forces to concentrate on one small group at a time and ultimately lead to the destruction of Joaquin's group (who was also a Cuban).

Afer the split of the forces in April 1967, the two forces never saw or had communications with each other, and Che constantly wrote of the this as well as the numerous other problems which included complete lack of communication with anyone outside the guerilla force.

Even when the Bolivian forces managed to locate and much of the guerilla force medical supplies in August 1967, Che continued to attempt to survive, even though he was frequently limited to having to ride on mule or horseback due to his asthma.

"The guerilla must be capable of withstanding extreme hardships, yet always capable of producing another effort"

GUERILLA WARFARE Che Guevara

In the last two months prior to his death, Che Guevara was limited to travel only by horseback or on the back of a mule due to his worsening asthma and increasingly worsening arthritis.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Che may have been a great leader under the auspices of Fidel and Raul Castro, yet when placed into the position himself, he was a dismal failure who violated virtually every concept of guerilla warfare that even he reportedly wrote.

A large difference between Fidel and Che was the fact that Che was a complete idealist who could not bring himself to impose the ABSOLUTE strict discipline which a guerilla force must have in order to survive.

Thus, many of his own forces, in one manner or another, sold him out.

Another frequently overlooked aspect of the Guevara episode is the fact that at no time during the guerilla phase was there ever a leader who was native Bolivian.

Anyone familiar with such activities knows absolutely that one must have a leader, even if only in figurehead, who is a native of the target country.

It is difficult enough to recruit such a force even with a native born "leader" of the movement.

Yet in this too, Che was deficient, and he so distrusted the capabilities of the Bolivian members of his force that even when splitting the forces, he placed a Cuban in charge.

The guerilla force was in reality never on the "offensive".

After compomise of their farm base camp, the force had to take to the jungles and thereafter even their jungle cache's were progressively located and secured by the Bolivian forces.

And, even though the first few encounters with the Bolivian forces ended in favor of Che's small force, each encounter also cost the force some of it's manpower and there was virtually no new recruitment being accomplished.

This progressive elimination of Che's forces in what were virtually always defensive encounters, left the guerilla force virtually on the run from the time of the initial contact with Bolivian forces on March 23, 1967 (with a guerilla force that did not have even two months of training) until the final death of Che in October.

[John Dolva]

Tom, in the process of puttin together a reply I keep coming across this enigmatic person. Who was he?

"In February 24th 2000, One of Bolivia's most enigmatic figures, Antonio Arguedas, has been killed, apparently after setting off a home-made bomb by accident. He became famous after sending the severed hands of the guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara to Fidel Castro as proof of his death. The body of Mr. Arguedas was found in La Paz on Tuesday with false identity papers. The government said that the manner of his death suggested he had been involved in recent bomb attacks on leftist leaders in La Paz. Mr. Arguedas headed the interior ministry under military rule in Bolivia in the 1960s. He later declared himself a Marxist and went to live in Cuba before returning to Bolivia in the 1980s."

Witnesses saw two men arguing. They separated and the bomb went off.

Apparently the entry of Che to Bolivia was noted by the CIA.

Che may have been preparing to return to Argentina.

Arguedas was recruited by the CIA in the 50's. Hugh Murray. His 'fall from grace' in 1967 was followed by the military dictatorship in Bolivia consolidating its power.

(image)

He went to Chile, he sent a copy of Che's diary to Fidel. He went to Cuba, he left Cuba and returned to Bolivia.

He survived and was active as a rightwinger until 2000.

A strange mix of events. Speculation: he always was CIA. He adopted a marxist guise in order to become a contact for pro Che individuals. In this persona he then guided the CIA to Che.

He stayed with Salvador Allendes people in Chile for some time. Could he at this time set up the structure that later was part of the assassination of Allende?

Who was Antonio Arguedas Mendito?

(image)

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Tom, in the process of puttin together a reply I keep coming across this enigmatic person. Who was he?

"In February 24th 2000, One of Bolivia's most enigmatic figures, Antonio Arguedas, has been killed, apparently after setting off a home-made bomb by accident. He became famous after sending the severed hands of the guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara to Fidel Castro as proof of his death. The body of Mr. Arguedas was found in La Paz on Tuesday with false identity papers. The government said that the manner of his death suggested he had been involved in recent bomb attacks on leftist leaders in La Paz. Mr. Arguedas headed the interior ministry under military rule in Bolivia in the 1960s. He later declared himself a Marxist and went to live in Cuba before returning to Bolivia in the 1980s."

Witnesses saw two men arguing. They separated and the bomb went off.

Apparently the entry of Che to Bolivia was noted by the CIA.

Che may have been preparing to return to Argentina.

Arguedas was recruited by the CIA in the 50's. Hugh Murray. His 'fall from grace' in 1967 was followed by the military dictatorship in Bolivia consolidating its power.

(image)

He went to Chile, he sent a copy of Che's diary to Fidel. He went to Cuba, he left Cuba and returned to Bolivia.

He survived and was active as a rightwinger until 2000.

A strange mix of events. Speculation: he always was CIA. He adopted a marxist guise in order to become a contact for pro Che individuals. In this persona he then guided the CIA to Che.

He stayed with Salvador Allendes people in Chile for some time. Could he at this time set up the structure that later was part of the assassination of Allende?

Who was Antonio Arguedas Mendito?

(image)

John;

I honestly do not know.

My work which dealt with the failure of Che's Bolivian (& limited Congo) campaigns was done well over 30 years ago when there were "first person" accountings available.

I do know that Che's hands were sent to TWO completely different sources for fingerprint identification and verification.

Thereafter, I have no direct knowledge of this information regarding his hands.

Although memory does have some faint recall that Che's hands did ultimately end up in Cuba for burial, it is mere memory-----which is of course highly dangerous to rely upon!

And, I may be merely recalling the ultimate and final location of his remains and the shipment of his body to Cuba.

Somewhere, I may have some information on this person, and just do not recall it due to either a lack of specific information or apparant lack of significance in the failure of Che.

I will dig and look though, as you have aroused the few remaining cerebral thought cells left.

Tom

P.S. Forgot to add!

A lot of such persons were "killed by accident" in such events.

Edited October 21, 2006 by Thomas H. Purvis

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Officially, Che did not arrive at the Rebel/guerilla base camp (farm) until November 7, 1966.

However, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that Che visited Bolivia in late July of 1966 and met with various communist leaders.

This visit apparantly lasted only a few days.

In the first weak of November 1966, Che returned to Bolivia under the name "Adolfo Mena Gonzales".

As previously indicated, a group of native Bolivians had been trained in the Special Camps in Cuba during the 1962/1963 period.

"Tania La Guerilla", who was later killed with Che's forces, was one of those who had been operating in Bolivia for several years prior to Che's known entry into the country, and she was well known by Che.

In 1961, Tania visited Cuba on an official Cuban Government Invitation, which was secured for her by Che Guevara.

Thus the evidence appears to indicate that Tania played an important role in the recruitment of those Bolivians who later went to Cuba to train in 1962/1963, and thereafter made up the nucleus of Che's native Bolivian guerilla force.

Tania also created a problem for the guerilla force once combat operations had begun, as she was not up to the rigors of guerilla life/survival in the jungle, not unlike Che.

She was of course killed during an ambush in which the Bolivian Army forces managed to either kill; capture; or wound approximately half of the guerilla force.

[James Richards]

Who was Antonio Arguedas Mendito? (John Dolva)

John,

How's your Spanish? You may have to run this through the Google language tool.

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=...6lr%3D%26sa%3DG

FWIW

James

[Terry Mauro]

Officially, Che did not arrive at the Rebel/guerilla base camp (farm) until November 7, 1966.

However, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that Che visited Bolivia in late July of 1966 and met with various communist leaders.

This visit apparantly lasted only a few days.

In the first weak of November 1966, Che returned to Bolivia under the name "Adolfo Mena Gonzales".

As previously indicated, a group of native Bolivians had been trained in the Special Camps in Cuba during the 1962/1963 period.

"Tania La Guerilla", who was later killed with Che's forces, was one of those who had been operating in Bolivia for several years prior to Che's known entry into the country, and she was well known by Che.

In 1961, Tania visited Cuba on an official Cuban Government Invitation, which was secured for her by Che Guevara.

Thus the evidence appears to indicate that Tania played an important role in the recruitment of those Bolivians who later went to Cuba to train in 1962/1963, and thereafter made up the nucleus of Che's native Bolivian guerilla force.

Tania also created a problem for the guerilla force once combat operations had begun, as she was not up to the rigors of guerilla life/survival in the jungle, not unlike Che.

She was of course killed during an ambush in which the Bolivian Army forces managed to either kill; capture; or wound approximately half of the guerilla force.

*****************************************************************

A link to Che and Tania.

http://chehasta.narod.ru/taniatamara.htm

[John Dolva]

Thank you James, that seems very helpful in filling in many details

Here's an attempt at a translation using

http://translation2.paralink.com/

I'm wondering whether he is quite as enigmatic as one might think. He is a puzzle, but in one instance a word is translated as 'right' which if correct in context would indicate right wing, however in a broader context, taking account of other things, means 'law' ie lawyer.

He was a person of power, and this seems to show that his power came from knowledge, which would explain him moving through the contradictory environments. It seems that Bolivia of this time is a place where much does not happen without CIA sanction, which makes analysis that he was CIA all this time a good one. The assassination attempt in early 1970 appears not to have been followed with a raid on his home, as Che's hands were recovered from there by a confidant and sent to Cuba, unless of course this was also a CIA sanctioned event. So the assassination attempt did not come from the powers that be, unless it had some darker purpose, it was likely a criminal enemy of some nature outside the realm of governments.

"I know the names of all involved in drug trafficking in Bolivia, and many people know that. That's why I am a dangerous man ". declared Antonio Arguedas when a few months ago the Bolivian police began a campaign against him. It was a question of linking him with a series of offences with bombs last year in this city - that did not do major damage and that the police never investigated deeply - that constituted the pretext to jail three individuals who supposedly formed a right wing terrorist group headed by Arguedas. Since then he went undercover, "writing his memoirs", as he showed Marcos Domic, current secretary of the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB), the target, paradoxically, of two of the above-mentioned offences. Both Domic, and Antonio Peredo Leigue (1), first met Arguedas in 1951, when they were militants of the PCB.

Last February (2000), at the age of 72 years, Antonio Arguedas died, according to the police version, as a consequence of suicicide by explosion of a bomb of his that destroyed his abdomen. Relatives and political analysts have doubts about this version, stating "Antonio Arguedas had many reasons to live, and none to kill himself ".

The life, and the death, of Antonio Arguedas was infested with contradictory actions and controversial attitudes. He was a person who during his rough and cloudy life always sailed between a low profile and sensation. The political world had forceful tests of it, when as a Secretary of the Interior of the government of general René Barrientos, he sent to Fidel Castro a copy of the diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, where the guerrilla chief was noting down his revolutionary activities in Bolivia.

What was the path and actions, in the last thirty years, of this controversial personage?

After his spectacular flight of Bolivia to Santiago of Chile, where he contacted leaders of the Chilean Left - among them journalists of 'Final Point' - he travelled to England, not accepting there the political asylum that the Cuban ambassador was offering him. Then he moved to the United States, where, according to himself, he had meetings with the CIA. It was known publicly - and he was not denying it - that from 1966, as of the Nationalistic Revolutionary Movement (MNR) and friend of general René Barrientos, Arguedas was an agent of the CIA. As undersecretary of the Department of the Interior he submitted to a lie detector and the truth serum pentothal in Lima and received the consent of the CIA to occupy the Department of the Interior, and supported up to his flight to Chile.

From the United States in 1969 he moved to Bolivia where he declared itself a Marxist and agent of the CIA. They initiated a prosecution for the delivery of the copy of the diary of Che, but then the records got lost in the middle of the political events of those months, among them the death of the president Barrientos. At the beginning of 1970 while he was going through the center of La Paz, he was riddled with bullets and it was on the verge of dying. It was in these circumstances that, being afraid for his life, he called his friend Víctor Zannier - who had collaborated with him in the transfer to Chile of the diary of Che - and he indicated to him the place where in his home he kept the hands of Che and his death mask and gave him directions of how get them to Cuba.

[the hands had been sent to Argentinia to be checked against old fingerprint archives, then somehow they ended up with Arguedas. The dental records were made in Cuba before Che left, in anticipation of his death. They were used to confirm the identity of his bones when they were returned 30 years later. During the guerilla campaign Che was enrusted with a couple of watches from dying comrades to pass on to their sons etc. Could it be that the Rolex that Felix 'proudly' displays in fact is not Che's, but belongs to someone still living? ]

Recovered from the wounds, he took refuge in the embassy of Mexico and from there it went to Havana where, according to Antonio Peredo, who was in Cuba at this time, he was received with much solemnity. In Cuba he remained for nine years, and according to diverse versions, between them that of Antonio Peredo with whom he had some meetings, he was seen as a disciplined and studious man, who was spent ten hours a day consulting and taking notes in libraries, to the point that someone thought: "This boy is preparing himself to be a president of Bolivia."

In effect, it's wrong to think that Antonio Arguedas was a "loquito tirabombas", a sick adventurer craving fame. Clearly his versatile and controversial personality was of power and of glory. All his life was still governed by activity disciplined in work and study. It is known that he neither was drug/drink? nor was smoking; that he practised mountaineering, was standing out in the shot of gun in the Academy of Police officer, and in swimming. He studied radio and joined the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) where he formed a solid friendship with René Barrientos. Both piloted the military plane that brought from Buenos Aires Dr.Víctor Paz Estenssoro after the revolution of April, 1952. Attentive reader, later was a brilliant student of law, a profession that he was exercising in the last years.

In 1963, he was elected a deputy by the MNR and after the coup d'état of general Barrientos (November, 1964) he became, as man of trust, the Department of the Interior, where the official iconography emphasizes it as symbol of power along with general René Barrientos.

When the democratic opening was growing in Bolivia, after the overthrow of general Hugo Banzer (1978), and three national elections were carried out, in the year 1979, Antonio Arguedas returns to Bolivia. On his own account or as agent of the CIA. From then he devotes himself to compile information about the structure and functioning of the mafias of the drug trafficking, organizing the most finished file of this activity. It is so he and his team manage to constitute in the group of intelligence more cash that had Bolivia. It is when the government of Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1985/1989) creates the National Council of Struggle against the Drug trafficking (CONALID) where Arguedas and his group are summoned to work without pay and without advice, seemingly, for the North American embassy. Then the politics you antidrug that he was claiming the president Victor Paz was faced by other ways. Pero Arguedas continued his prolix work, tesonera and without breaks: was it doing it for 'truth' or for the CIA? This, perhaps, will never be known.

The true thing is that in this task he managed to document the participation of the most diverse persons of politics, finance, businessmen, and the circles of power involved in the business and the traffic of drugs in Bolivia. This is what he was doing when he tried to give a main blow, in the year 1986, against what was called the Lebanon "Connection ", formed by familiar dynasties that established fortunes with the business of cocaine. He organized then the kidnapping of a businessman of Lebanese origin, Antonio Curi Curi, a task that he considered to be fundamental to complete the mission that he or someone had entrusted to him. Here, clearly a strong tension took place between drug trafficking groups. On May 23, 1986 Arguedas was detained for the kidnapping of the businessman Antonio Curi Curi and was imprisoned for three years up to l6 of October, 1989.

Later he was dedicated to public activities, exercising his lawyer's profession. Nevertheless, as he commented to Antonio Peredo in these years that he offered to announce the names of the principal ones involved in the drug trafficking, whenever they were delivering them to the North American justice. This would indicate that Arguedas was not trusting Bolivian justice. Or that he kept on being faithful to his old work for the CIA.

Later he was accused of being involved in another kidnapping, which the police typified as an action meant to obtain money. Arguedas then went underground. In the last months of last year (between November 20 and December 16) six offences took place in the most unsuspected places and that clearly had a confused origin that was never clarified by the police. Again Antonio Arguedas was thought responsible for several deaths. In these days the jueza that was knowing about these cases had to pronounce sentence. But the principal accused could not come to the appointment.

Immediately that the corpse was identified, the police searched his home, and according to them, found an arsenal: guns, revolvers, implements for bomb manufacture, etc. At the same time another police body was removing from his house the computer, computer disks, and dozens of yellow and black folders, envelopes of manila, and documents, which formed the files that Arguedas had compiled for many years.

In the political, journalistic and familiar ambience there remains doubt about the real authors of the violent death of the ex-Secretary of the Interior. The current prosecutor, Walter Guiteras, refused to give information, answering the questions of the press with "We are investigating."

WASHINGTON ESTELLANO - En La Paz, Bolivia

(1)Antonio Peredo, brother of Inti and Coconut that took part in the guerrillas of Che, had opportunity to meet with Arguedas. According to him, in 1967, when he was chased by the Bolivian police, Arguedas, as Secretary of the Interior, facilitated him going to Chile. And later, in Chile, in Cuba and in Bolivia he conversed with Arguedas.

"At the same time another police body was removing from his house the computer, computer disks, and dozens of yellow and black folders, envelopes of manila, and documents, which formed the files that Arguedas had compiled for many years."

These would be very valuable. What is this 'another police body' and where are these files today?

Edited October 22, 2006 by John Dolva