Che's Bolivian campaign

[Qwerty Dvorak]

It's for a history research topic, I'm looking at Che's Bolivian campaign and assessing the reasons for its failure. I'm using his book and essay on Guerrilla Warfare and Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson, but I would appreciate some extra sources, preferably some critical analysis of the campaign, and the sources must be authenticated, and written by a person of academic authority.

Thanks!!

[TheMachine]

I believe one major factor of its failure was the infiltration of Che's inner circle by CIA agents.

Theres alot of information about the whole thing here, plus it has sources cited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara


The Bolivian Special Forces were notified of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment by an informant.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

How about reading Che's Bolivian Diary? It's the most accurate discription of what went on.. much more than Anderson's book, which contains a ton of errors and falsehoods.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

The Bolivian Special Forces were notified of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment by an informant.

Yeah, and he started off as a guerrilla. He left and snitched the group out. He didn't start out as an informant or infultrator.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Bolivia
Throughout 1966 and 1967 people continued to wonder where exactly Che was. Finally, in a speech at the 1967 May Day rally in Havana, Major Juan Almeida announced that Guevara was “serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America.” It would turn out that Che was leading a guerrilla army in Bolivia.

Che chose Bolivia after a 1964 coup triggered an outbreak in demonstrations, protests, strike by miners, and repression against leaders of leftist and other popular movements. When he and his comrades analyzed the situation, they saw that there was an opening for a guerrilla column made up of Bolivians, some Peruvians, and a group of well trained Cubans, to launch a revolutionary offensive. The plan was to create an international rebel army, that, after achieving victory in Bolivia, would spread the struggle to the rest of Latin America.

A piece of land was purchased in the jungles of the Nancahuazu by the Bolivian Communist party and turned over to Che for use as a training area. The Party originally pledged its full support and participation of its membership, but its leader, Mario Monjae, later decided against it after the struggle had already begun.

The rebel army, named the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional de Bolivia (National Liberation Army of Bolivia), was made up of about 50 well equipped guerrillas. They were able to launch a number of successful attacks against the Bolivian army in the mountainous Camiri region, despite the fact that it was being trained in jungle warfare and aided by U.S. Army Special Forces.

But problems, such as the refusal of the Communist Party of Bolivia to deliver expected assistance, materials, and reinforcements (the Party leadership went as far as to refuse to tell would-be volunteers how and where to join the guerrillas), eventually lead to some defeats. In September the Bolivian Army managed to eliminate two small groups of guerrillas.

Additionally, with full CIA backing, counter-revolutionary Cuban exiles set up interrogation houses in which they tortured 300,000 Bolivians in search of supporters of Che and the guerrillas.

(From "Who was Che Guevara?" (http://www.freepeoplesmovement.org/ry/rya5a.html))

[loveme4whoiam]

Whats the source for that 300,000 tortured Bolivians? Not that I think its inaccurate, its just massive.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Well, it's what happened. There are numerous accounts to back it up. I just did a quick google search and found these:


Guevara and his associates found themselves hamstrung in Bolivia by the American aid and military trainers to the Bolivian government and a lack of assistance from his allies. In addition, the CIA also helped anti-Castro Cuban exiles set up interrogation houses for those Bolivians thought to be assisting Guevara and/or his guerrillas. Most were tortured for information. It is believed that nearly 300,000 people fell victim to the witch hunt to hunt down the supporters of Guevara. Source (http://www.newsmth.net/pc/pccon.php?id=3984&nid=182637&s=all)

www.dirpedia.com/ernesto-che-guevara.html+bolivia+che+300,000+interrogation+hou ses&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8]This (http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:w0wKODfUgPYJ:[url) cached page from dirpedia mentions it.[/url]

This article (http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html) mentions it, and quotes Courtesy of Friends for Cuba Society (FOCUS) @ http://www.focuba.org.za/

I believe the book "Compañero" by Jorge Castaneda also mentions it.

[loveme4whoiam]

Cheers - more fuel for a semi-friendly on-going argument I&#39;m in with a friend over the brutally repressive nature of the the Latin American Cold War dictatorships. When he said Pinochet "wasn&#39;t that bad" I came close to beating him senseless <_<

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12, 2006 03:27 pm
preferably some critical analysis of the campaign, and the sources must be authenticated, and written by a person of academic authority.
The best academic book is "Conflicting Missions" by Piero Gliejeses. It&#39;s won an acdemic prize or two. It completely takes apart Castaneda&#39;s bullshit, shows how he&#39;s trusted all kinds of unreliable sources.

But I hope you&#39;re not considering academic books preferable to primary sources - that&#39;s really bad scholarship even from the academic standpoint. Readily available primary sources include not only Che&#39;s diary, which you mention, but those of other participants. The diary of Pombo (Harry Villegas), for example, published as "Pombo: A man of Che&#39;s Guerilla", author Harry Villegas. I&#39;d also recommend "Fertile Ground" by Rodolfo Saldana - he was head of the underground support network for the guerillas - though that&#39;s his later retelling of events not a document from the time.