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Only a small band of revolutionaries survived to re-group as a bedraggled fighting force deep into the Sierra Maestra mountains, where they received support from Frank País's urban guerrilla network, the 26th of July Movement, and local country folk. With Castro and his men withdrawn to the Sierra, the world wondered whether he was alive or dead until the famous Herbert Matthews interview with Castro appeared in the New York Times in early 1957, presenting a lasting, almost mythical image for Castro. Guevara was not present for that interview, but in the coming months he began to realize the importance of the interview that created an icon of a bearded Castro dressed in fatigues, legitimizing the Cuban Revolution. Meanwhile, as supplies and morale grew low, Che considered this "the most painful days of the war."[1]
At this point Castro unexpectedly promoted Che to comandante of a second army column. As Che considered his tactics, he imposed even more ruthless treatment as a strict disciplinarian whose harsh methods were already notorious among the rebel fighters. Deserters were severely punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send execution squads to hunt down deserters seeking to escape.[2] Che's next plan to hit an enemy garrison did not go as planned and Che, in fear and about to flee, almost shot one of his own sentries. Although the garrison eventually surrendered, Che had already run away. Back in their camp they learn of the murder of Frank Paiz, coordinator for the Oriente, which resulted in demonstrations and strikes across Cuba.
Che became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness.[3] During the guerrilla campaign, he was responsible for the execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies.[4] As the war extended, Guevara led a new column of fighters dispatched westward for the final push towards Havana. In the closing days of December 1958, he directed his "suicide squad" in the attack on Santa Clara that became one of the decisive events of the revolution.[5][6][7] Batista, upon learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959.
On January 8, 1959, Castro's army rolled victoriously into Havana.[8] On February 7, 1959, the government proclaimed Guevara "a Cuban citizen by birth" in recognition of his role in the triumph of the revolutionary forces. Shortly thereafter, he divorced Hilda Gadea, who was still in Mexico. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March,[Children] a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958.
During the rebellion against Batista's dictatorship, the general command of the rebel army, led by Fidel Castro, introduced into the liberated territories the 19th-century penal law commonly known as the [Ley de la Sierra]. This law included the death penalty for extremely serious crimes, whether perpetrated by the dictatorship or by supporters of the revolution. In 1959, the revolutionary government extended its application to the whole of the republic and to war criminals captured and tried after the revolution. This latter extension, supported by the majority of the population, followed the same procedure as those seen in the Nuremburg trials held by the Allies after World War II.[9] To implement this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, for a five-month tenure (January 2 through June 12, 1959). [10] Guevara was charged with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against traitors, chivatos, and Batista's war criminals.[11] Serving in the post as "supreme prosecutor" on the appellate bench, Guevara oversaw the trials and executions of those convicted by revolutionary tribunal. The justification for the execution of torturers and other brutal criminals of the Batista regime, was done under the hope of preventing the people themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as happened during the anti-Machado rebellion, which threw the society into chaos.[12] It is estimated that a few hundred people were executed on Guevara's extra-judicial orders during this time. [13]
On 12 June 1959, as soon as Guevara returned to Havana, Castro sent him out on a three-month tour of fourteen countries, most of them Bandung Pact members in Africa and Asia. Sending Che from Havana allowed Castro to appear to be distancing himself from Che and his Communism, that troubled both the United States and Castro's M-26-7 members.[14] He spent twelve days in Japan (15 - 27 July), participating in negotiations aimed at expanding Cuba's trade relations with that nation but the Japanese were noncommittal. When he returned to Cuba in September 1959, he found Castro now had more political power. The government had begun the land seizures provided for by the agrarian reform law but was backing off on the compensation offers to landowners, alerting the United States who was becoming wary. The popular leader, Huber Matos, had joined the resisters, acting as the chief spokesman for the M-26-7. Castro began cleaning house with a show down with Matos.[15] Abruptly, Castro appointed Guevara chief official at the National Institute of Agrarian Reform,[INRA], and President of the National Bank of Cuba.[BNC] while allowing him to retain his military rank. Although seeming to be a strange choice for the important position, Che had been promoting the creation of self-sufficient industries since days of the Sierra Maestra. Che was expecting the U.S. to invade and the Cuban population would have to leave the cities and fight as guerillas, although Che's hopes for armed uprisings elsewhere were failing.[16]
- ^ DePalma, Anthony (2006), The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times, New York: Public Affairs, pp. 110–111, ISBN 1-58648-332-3.
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee (1997), Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: Grove Press, pp. 269–270, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0
- ^ Castañeda, Jorge G., Che Guevara: Compañero, New York: 1998, Random House, pp 105, 119.
- ^ Anderson pp. 269–270, 277–278.
- ^ Castro, Fidel (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés). Revolutionary Struggle. 1947–1958. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: MIT Press, 1972, pp. 439–442.
- ^ Castro, Fidel. ( Speech given in Palma Soriano, Cuba. Online
- ^ Dorschner, John and Roberto Fabricio. The Winds of December: The Cuban Revolution of 1958, New York: 1980, Coward, McCann & Geoghegen, ISBN 0698109937, pages 41–47, 81–87.
- ^ "Castro: The Great Survivor". BBC News. October 2000. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Thirty Years of Cuban Revolutionary Penal Law, by Raul Gomez Treto, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 2, Cuban Views on the Revolution (Spring, 1991), pp. 114-125 (pg 115-116)
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 372 and p. 425
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 376.
- ^ Thirty Years of Cuban Revolutionary Penal Law, by Raul Gomez Treto, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 2, Cuban Views on the Revolution (Spring, 1991), pp. 114-125 (pg 116)
- ^ Different sources cite different numbers of executions. Anderson states that "several hundred people were officially tried and executed across Cuba." p.387. Dr. Armando M. Lago of the Cuba Archive, gives the figure as 216 documented executions in two years. Others give far higher figures.
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 423.
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 434–437.
- ^ Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, ISBN 0-8021-1600-0, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 438–439.