By Tyrion Perkins
Cuban revolutionary Leonardo Tomayo Nuñes (also known as Urbano) was Che Guevara's chief escort while in Cuba and is the only surviving member of the group of revolutionaries who went to Bolivia with Che. On tour in Australia, he spoke at several large meetings in Brisbane, including a barbecue organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, a Resistance meeting and union reception at the University of Queensland and, on June 18, a 100-strong meeting organised by CISLAC (Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean) at the Resistance Centre. The following excerpts are from this last talk.
In Cuba the infant mortality rate is lower than in the US. Cuba hasn't closed any schools. There are no children begging, no children who don't go to school and no people who can't go to hospital. This is the "crime" the revolution has committed and why the US blockades Cuba.
When I left for Bolivia in 1966, it had 76.8% illiteracy rate, and peasants had a life expectancy of 34 years compared to 75-77 years in Cuba. In Latin America you hear about mothers who have to sell one child to feed the other. You hear that 700 to 800 people per day die of hunger.
Che was already politically educated when he went to Cuba. When he was called up for military service in Argentina, he deserted because he wouldn't serve a regime that oppressed people. Instead he went to help a leper colony in the Amazon.
There were only 36 people in the guerilla force when they decided to go to Bolivia, but the Bolivian army was defeated and the president publicly requested his end of term in the newspapers and on radio. They expected the Bolivian people to take power with the Bolivian Communist Party playing a major role. However, the secretary of the Communist Party stopped it; if he hadn't, [the revolution] would have progressed. The idea wasn't just to do this in Bolivia, but to create three, four, five Vietnams in Latin America.
On the day of Che's death, he had sent us to take up positions where the military were most likely to appear. That night when we returned, he wasn't there. We heard on the radio he had been taken prisoner and was wounded in the legs. Later they said he was gravely injured in combat. That night they said he had been killed in combat. I heard that the officer who was ordered to kill him at first refused. He was then told to shoot him in the stomach. That is how he died.
Question: What do you remember of Bacarito, "the Little Cowboy"?
His name was Roberto Rodriguez. He was friendly, jovial and liked for that. He would go dressed as a cowboy to fight, and one day they gave him cowboy boots and nicknamed him Bacarito. After they went from the Sierra Maestra, he had the idea of creating a commando unit. Che agreed but said it should be called a suicide unit "and since it is your idea, you can be in charge".
I was second in command to him. There were 34 in the unit. Ten would attack the barracks. You would go with a grenade in each hand — without the pins — throw them into the barracks, then follow with a machine gun. Seven were killed, three survived. Bacarito did not live to see the triumph of the revolution. When he was shot in the head, Che said they've killed 100 men.
Question: What has happened since the US planes owned by the counter-revolutionary organisation Brothers to the Rescue were shot down over Cuba on February 24?
It wasn't publicised, but the court took away the flying licence of the organisation's president because it was found they had violated Cuban airspace. The US spokesperson expressed her sorrow at having to speak to the families of the pilots killed. She did not mention the loss of hundreds of Cubans killed in various attacks by the US. We have spent 37 years speaking to families of people who have died.