Harry Villegas Tamayo

Cuban revolutionary, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and Brigadier General of the FAR. He fought alongside Che in the Congo and Bolivia.

Harry was born in Yara, a locality located in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra, between Bayamo and Manzanillo, in the current province of Granma.

In 1954, at just 14 years old, Harry Villegas began supporting activists of the Orthodox Party in their opposition and sabotage actions against the dictatorship. When Fidel Castro founded the 26th of July Movement on June 12, 1955, Villegas, like many orthodox youth, joined and integrated into a clandestine cell that included, among others, Leopoldo Cintra Frías ("Polo"), Teté Puebla, Manuel Lastre Pacheco, who would later stand out in the Rebel Army.

At the beginning of 1958, along with other young people, they decided to climb to the Sierra Maestra to join the guerrilla of the 26th of July Movement, but they were rejected by Che, who told them that with the low-caliber weapons they had it was not possible to face soldiers, inviting them to return to the plains to take weapons from some soldiers and come back up. Villegas and his companions sought higher-caliber weapons among known families. On that second opportunity, they were indeed accepted by Guevara.

In the early days, he acted as a messenger and assistant and was sent to the Recruit School of Minas del Frío. During the government offensive against the guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra, initiated in May 1958, he was sent to fight in Column 1, led by Fidel Castro, and participated in the battles of Jigüe, Las Vegas, San Lorenzo, Meriño and Las Mercedes.

When Column 8 Ciro Redondo was formed under the command of Che Guevara, he was assigned to it and quickly became one of Che's trusted men, who made up his escort with Juan Alberto Castellanos, Hermes Peña, Carlos Coello ("Tuma") and Harry Villegas ("Pombo").

As an escort, he remained with Guevara throughout the military campaign. He participated in the Battle of Santa Clara and other battles and later established himself in the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña, Havana, starting in January 1959.

After the revolutionary triumph, he continued working with Che as head of his escort. In 1961, he served as administrator of the state company Sanitarios Nacionales, in San José, Havana, appointed by Che Guevara in his capacity as Minister of Industry. He requests to be relieved of that position and then attends the school of administrators. After this period, Che decides to send him with the previous position to another factory, but Pombo refuses, affirming that he is a guard and begins to serve in the Armed Forces.

In 1963, Che Guevara sent several of his trusted men (Hermes Peña and Juan Alberto Castellanos) to be part of the guerrilla group that settled in northern Argentina, under the command of Jorge Masetti under the name Guerrilla Army of the People (EGP). He received a clear explanation about his absence from the group from Che, who mentioned to him that he was not sending him due to his black skin, which would have prevented him from going unnoticed in northern Argentina.

He was selected in 1965 by Che among the fighters of the group of Cuban guerrillas that he led in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There he took the nickname "Pombo", by which he has been known worldwide, which in Swahili means "leaf".

He arrived in Bolivia in July 1966 and was in charge of the final preparations for the guerrilla. He made the journey with Che, in two jeeps, from La Paz to the Ñancahuazú farm. He was part of the center group and was considered by Che as a pillar of the column.

Between 1966 and 1967, he was among the fighters who accompanied Che in Bolivia to participate in the guerrilla focus that Che Guevara established in that country, in the area of the Ñancahuazú river, where the latter would die.

After the battle of the Quebrada del Yuro, along with Inti Peredo, David Adriazola Veizaga Darío, Benigno and Leonardo Tamayo Núñez (Urbano), Urbano managed to escape the Bolivian Army's encirclement. Among the peasants they find refuge and with the help of activists from the Bolivian Communist Party, they leave first to Cochabamba and then, from Oruro, the three surviving Cubans cross the border into Chile. They arrive in Cuba on March 6, 1968.

He then continued serving in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, participating as a military advisor in Angola and Nicaragua. He achieved the rank of brigadier general.

He died on December 29, 2019 in Havana, at the age of 81, due to multiple organ dysfunction. His body was cremated and on December 30 of that same year a posthumous tribute was paid to him at the Pantheon of Veterans of Colón Cemetery.

Awards and Decorations
He received the decoration of Hero of the Republic of Cuba. He is a Brigadier General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), member of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), vice president and executive secretary of the National Board of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution and scholar of the military thought of Ernesto Che Guevara.