BY MARTÍN KOPPEL
SANTA CLARA, Cuba - "We come not to bid farewell to Che and his heroic comrades, but to welcome them," Cuban president Fidel Castro told an overflow crowd in the Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza here October 17. "I see Che and his men as reinforcements, as a detachment of invincible fighters, who this time include not only Cubans but Latin Americans coming to fight alongside us and write new pages of history and glory."

He added, "Che was a genuine communist - and today he remains an example, a model of a revolutionary and a communist."

Guevara is inseparable from the Cuban revolution, Castro emphasized, and his political values and principles become more attractive to millions as the horrors imperialism offers humanity are increasingly exposed. Tens of thousands packed the square at the entrance to this city to honor the revolutionary leader and his fellow communist fighters who fell in battle in Bolivia 30 years ago. The rally and military ceremony were the culmination of ten days of activities in which the remains of Guevara and six of his co- combatants, recently discovered and returned from Bolivia, were interred here.

The Argentine-born revolutionary joined the July 26th Movement and Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro in 1955, and soon became one of the outstanding commanders of the popular insurrectionary movement that overthrew the U.S.-backed tyranny of Fulgencio Batista. After the 1959 victory he shouldered central responsibilities in the new government, such as director of the National Bank and of the Ministry of Industry, as Cuba's revolutionary vanguard led millions of workers and farmers on a course independent of U.S. imperialist interests, opening the socialist revolution in the Americas.

In Bolivia, Che led a unit of Bolivian, Peruvian, and Cuban revolutionary combatants in 1966-67 in a struggle to topple the military regime there and forge an international movement capable of accomplishing in countries throughout Latin America what working people had proven was possible in Cuba. Che was wounded in combat and captured on Oct. 8, 1967, and the Bolivian military, after seeking agreement from their mentors in Washington, murdered him the following day.

Starting on October 11, for three days, thousands of people - 72,000 in the first day alone - filed through the José Martí monument in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution to honor Che and six other fighters in the Bolivian campaign. These revolutionaries, also known by their noms de guerre, are: Alberto Fernández (Pacho), Orlando Pantoja (Antonio), René Martínez Tamayo (Arturo), and Carlos Coello (Tuma) of Cuba; Simón Cuba (Willy) of Bolivia; and Juan Pablo Chang (Chino) of Peru.

The families of Simón Cuba and Juan Pablo Chang had asked that their remains be brought to Cuba together with those of their fellow combatants.

On October 14, a military procession took the seven caskets to Santa Clara, following the same route - in reverse - that the units of the Rebel Army commanded by Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos took in January 1959 as they marched victoriously on Havana. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets for mile after mile, not only in Havana but through numerous towns, villages, and rural areas along the 200-mile route.

Most people stood silently by the road as the caravan passed through. Some brought portraits of Che apparently taken from their living rooms, or signs painted with the slogan Hasta la victoria siempre! (Forward ever until victory). In cities such as Havana and Matanzas, many people hung Cuban flags and the red-and-black flag of the July 26 Movement from their apartment windows. The population of Santa Clara turned out in force to welcome the procession. During the following two days, groups of workers, schoolchildren, and many others stood in long lines to pay homage to the revolutionary fighters who lay in state in the José Marti' library in the city center before being interred in a mausoleum, which is combined with a museum, in the Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza.

A few days earlier, youth from the Federation of University Students (FEU) held a march through the streets of Santa Clara celebrating Che's life with colorful banners. A group of several dozen students from Sancti Spíritu, east of Santa Clara, organized a bicycle contingent that pedaled through some of the key sites in central Cuba where Guevara's Column 8 of the Rebel Army had passed on its historic march westward into Las Villas province, which cut the island in two and captured Santa Clara, Cuba's third-largest city, on Jan. 1, 1959, sealing Batista's fate.

The night before the main rally, groups of youth lit bonfires throughout the city. Bringing guitars and Cuban flags, they sang songs and read poetry celebrating Che.

Under a burning sun, people filled the main square early on October 17. The mood was a mixture of popular celebration and solemn pride.

Fidel Castro was accompanied on the reviewing stand by Raúl Castro, minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and other generals; other members of the newly elected Political Bureau of the Communist Party; relatives of the seven honored combatants; veterans of Column 8; and other invited guests.

Castro gave a brief speech before a quiet, disciplined crowd that seemed intent on absorbing every word. He described how Che Guevara's revolutionary life and struggle were intertwined with the Cuban revolution's history and political course.

"The invasion from the Sierra Maestra through immense and unprotected plains, and the capture of the city of Santa Clara with just a few men, are some of the actions that show the feats he was capable of achieving," he said.

As though addressing Che himself, the Cuban president declared, "Thank you for coming to reinforce us in this difficult struggle we are waging today to save the ideas for which you fought so hard, to save the revolution, the country, and its socialist conquests - the part of your dreams that have been fulfilled."

He added, "This land, which is your land, this people, which is your people, this revolution, which is your revolution, continue to uphold the banners of socialism with honor and pride."

Answering those, both foes and would-be friends, who depict Guevara as a reckless adventurer or a utopian dreamer at best, Castro insisted that the Bolivian guerrilla was based on a solid political perspective. "His ideas about a revolution in his country of origin and the rest of South America, despite enormous difficulties, were possible [to achieve]. If they had been achieved, perhaps the world today would be different.

"Vietnam demonstrated that it was possible to fight against imperialism's interventionist forces and defeat them," Castro pointed out. "The Sandinistas [in Nicaragua] defeated one of the most powerful U.S. puppets. The Salvadoran revolutionaries were on the verge of attaining victory.

"In Africa, apartheid was defeated, despite the fact that it possessed nuclear weapons. China, thanks to the heroic struggle of its workers and peasants, is today one of the countries with the best prospects in the world. Hong Kong had to be returned after 150 years of [British] occupation."

The Cuban leader noted that "not all times or circumstances require the same methods or tactics. But nothing can stop the course of history. Its objective laws have enduring relevance. Che based himself on these laws and had absolute faith in man."

Che's ideas attractive to fighters today
A combatant may die, Castro stated, but his ideas do not have to. "Those interested in eliminating him, in making him disappear, were incapable of understanding that he had already left his indelible mark on history and .. would become a symbol for all the poor of this earth, of whom there are billions."

In fact, he underlined, the ideas Che was fighting for are more important and attractive today for fighters because of the brutality and decay of the existing order. "The greater the injustice, exploitation, inequality, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and misery in human society, the greater his figure becomes," he explained.

Castro concluded his speech declaring, "Welcome, heroic comrades of the reinforcement units! The enemy will never be able to conquer the trenches of ideas and justice that you will defend alongside our people! And together we will continue fighting for a better world!"

Many of those taking part in the ceremonies here echoed this conviction. Isidro Reyes, a high school teacher, who along with many others stood in line for hours waiting to pay tribute to Che, remarked, "The U.S. government is annoyed by the meetings in homage to Che that are taking place in many countries of the world." He said he had read that a U.S. State Department official had tried to dismiss the commemorations in Cuba and elsewhere by saying they meant Cubans were "stuck in the past" in a changing world in which Che was irrelevant. "But the reason there are more sincere people interested in Che's thought is precisely because the world is changing, and it's getting worse for the peoples of the Third World," Reyes pointed out.

Luis Martínez, a textile worker, responded, "For me, Che's example is extremely important today. He was very demanding of others, but was always the first to do the most difficult job. Today, that's important for a leader and a revolutionary - it's what we need if we are to start getting out of the Special Period," referring to Cuba's current economic crisis.

Maylín Morera, 21, a student at the Pedagogical Institute attending the Ernesto Guevara Studies Program there, said, "My generation didn't live through the revolution, but we were brought up reading about Che, and he is one of my heroes. Some of the young people I know aren't interested in socialism and all, but I've read everything I can by Che." Morera said a group of students at her school were planning an event devoted to Che Guevara in late October.

Referring to Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas (also known as Pombo), who fought with Che in the Congo and Bolivia as well as Cuba's Sierra Maestra and Las Villas, she said, "Pombo came to speak at our university - he told us incredible stories about what Che was like, and how young people today have to learn from his example."

Antonio Martínez, 78, a veteran of the Battle of Santa Clara, described with pride how the rebel fighters under Guevara's command had crushed Batista's forces within a few days rather than the several weeks they initially thought it would take.

Martínez pointed to the military review that took place after Castro's speech. Commanded by Villegas, hundreds of troops from the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Ministry of Interior, and Territorial Troop Militias, marched with precision through the square along with veterans of the revolutionary war, of the crushing of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, of the fight against the counterrevolutionaries in the Escambray mountains, and of various internationalist missions. They were accompanied by units of workers belonging to voluntary work contingents and to Production and Defense Brigades, the workers militias that guard workplaces from enemy attack or sabotage.

"Look at our soldiers," Martínez remarked with a grin. "Their moves are impeccable, beautiful. Don't you think that scares the imperialists?"  
 
 
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