BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND BRIAN TAYLOR
HAVANA, Cuba - A highlight of the International Book Fair
held here in mid-February was the joint launching of two
books by Cuban revolutionary leaders. One, published in
Spanish by Editora Política of Havana, is Pombo: un hombre
de la guerrilla del Che (Pombo: A Guerrilla with Che), by
Cuban brigadier general Harry Villegas, also known as Pombo,
who spoke at the event. The other, published by New York-
based Pathfinder Press, is Episodes of the Cuban
Revolutionary War, by Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central
leaders of the early years of the Cuban revolution.
About 100 people attended the February 10 event, hosted by Editora Política, the publishing house of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Villegas fought in many of the decisive battles of the Cuban revolutionary war in the late 1950s as a member of Guevara's column in the Rebel Army. Later he was part of the general staff of the guerrilla forces that fought with Che, first in the Congo (now Zaire) and then in Bolivia.
After Guevara's capture and murder by the CIA-directed Bolivian army in October 1967, Villegas led the six surviving guerrillas to break through the army encirclement. Based on the diary he kept, Pombo: A Guerrilla with Che is Villegas's previously unpublished account of the Bolivian campaign, from his arrival in La Paz, Bolivia, in July 1966 to his return to Cuba in March 1968.
Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War is Guevara's account of how the July 26 Movement and the Rebel Army, led by Fidel Castro, waged a struggle that culminated in a mass armed insurrection and the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictatorship by Cuba's workers and peasants in 1959. The new Pathfinder book makes available for the first time in English all the articles written by Guevara as part of the Episodes series. Previous versions of the book have long been out of print.
Among those attending the book presentation were numerous members of the Central Committee and Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party as well as ranking officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. These included Political Bureau members María de los Angeles García and Division General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, commander of Cuba's Western Army. Frías commanded the Cuban forces in Angola during the decisive defeat of the South African army at Cuito Cuanavale in 1988. Other Central Committee members present included Manuel Piñeiro, for many years the head of the Central Committee's Americas Department, as well as Rolando Alfonso, and Ramiro Valdés. Noel González, from the department of propaganda work for the Central Committee, and Alberto Rodríguez Arufe, deputy head of the international relations department of the CC, were also present.
Rebel Army veterans
Also in attendance were a number of veteran combatants of
the Rebel Army who had directly aided in preparing the
annotation, maps, photo captions, glossary, and other parts
of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War. They included
Brig. Gen. Miguel Lorente, Col. Enzo Infante, and Col.
Enrique Dorta. Col. Leonardo Tamayo, known as Urbano, another
of the three Cuban survivors of the Bolivian campaign, was
introduced from the audience.
Iraida Aguirrechu, who was responsible for the editorial preparation of Pombo: A Guerrilla with Che, introduced the author and pointed to some of the highlights of the new book. Villegas, she noted, "gives answers to questions such as: why was Bolivia chosen to initiate this action for the liberation of the Americas, and what was the role of the Bolivian Communist Party?"
`No loss of confidence by Che'
Villegas told the audience that "our youth will find in
this document a strong message." Pombo's firsthand account of
Guevara's leadership of the guerrilla forces, and his diary
entries written in the heat of the events, indicate "no trace
of weakness, nor loss of confidence, nor loss of faith in the
prospect of victory or the future," he said.
Likewise, in Che's own diary of the Bolivian struggle, Villegas noted, "there is not a single moment, even on the last day of the diary, October 7, [1967,] that Che shows any sign of feeling defeated. All his actions were a battle cry." A new English-language edition of that book, titled The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, was published by Pathfinder in 1994.
Pombo emphasized that Che was a product of the Cuban revolution. "Che's view," he said, "of giving everything for humanity, his deep sense of sacrifice, his profoundly revolutionary attitude, the keen sense of values reflected in Che's work - all this came together in our country. It's precisely in our country that all these views matured. For this reason," Villegas added, referring to Cuban president Fidel Castro, "I think Che too was part of the great school of Fidel."
Understanding these facts, Villegas remarked, "is decisive for us at this time, when the enemy is again trying to find differences between Che and our commander in chief."
Differences between Castro, Guevara?
One example of what Pombo was referring to was an article
featured prominently by the New York Times in its Sunday,
November 26, issue. The article, by Thomas H. Lipscomb,
attempted to convince its readers, among other things, that
in the final hours before his assassination on October 9,
Guevara told his captors "that Castro failed him at a crucial
time."
Mary-Alice Waters, editor of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, wrote a reply to the Times editors refuting the lies in the Lipscomb article. In its December 18 issue, the Militant published the full text of her letter, which the Times ran in an abbreviated form.
Following Villegas's remarks, Aguirrechu announced Pathfinder's publication of Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War. She introduced Waters, who is also the editor of this new book by Guevara, adding that she is the "president of Pathfinder Press and a member of the Socialist Workers Party, a party that is our friend and is in solidarity with the Cuban revolution." Aguirrechu, who collaborated in preparing the new Pathfinder book, added that Editora Política will bring out a new Spanish-language edition of the book in a few months' time. Pathfinder will publish the English-language edition of Pombo: A Guerrilla with Che this year as well.
A political weapon for today
"The books being launched here today are not history books
about the past," Waters noted in her remarks, "however
important the history they recount may be. They are political
weapons for today.
"Episodes and Pombo's book are weapons for a new generation, born many years after the battles and struggles of the Sierra Maestra forged the cadres that proved capable of leading - and, above all, dared to lead - an armed insurrection by the fighting people of Cuba," which overthrew the Batista dictatorship and "opened the doors to the socialist revolution in our hemisphere."
Waters said Pathfinder had published this book because "it is needed. It is needed by working people and youth in countries like the United States who today are seeking answers to the growing problems they face and are trying to learn how to resist, fight back, and, most importantly, to win."
Cuban revolution shows the way
The editor of Episodes pointed to the conditions in
today's world, which is marked by sharpening interimperialist
rivalry, attacks on workers' social gains by capitalist
governments everywhere, the rise of fascist-type currents,
and an imperialist drive toward war against Yugoslavia. In
this world, Waters said, many workers and young people
seeking an alternative begin to look to the example of the
Cuban revolution as the road forward. For them, Episodes
"shows concretely how and why the Cuban revolution triumphed
and has endured," she stated.
Immediately following the book launch, dozens of people flocked to the back of the hall to snap up copies of the two books. Throughout the weeklong fair, one of the most popular books at the Pathfinder booth was Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War. Titles by Guevara were among the best- sellers at the book fair as a whole, organizers reported.
Pathfinder's Episodes was the subject of an interview with Waters on the nationally broadcast station Radio Progreso. She was also interviewed on both the Spanish- and English- language programs of Radio Havana, which is broadcast by shortwave throughout the Americas. "If you read Episodes... it does make sense why the U.S. government hates the Cuban revolution so much," said Waters at the Havana Radio interview.
Cuban TV and Radio Rebelde also reported the launching of the two books. The February 14 Granma, the country's main daily, published an interview with Waters along with a photograph of her at the Pathfinder booth at the Havana fair.