Harry Villegas, survivor of Che's guerrilla warfare in Bolivia, dies in Cuba

December 31, 2019

Harry Villegas (1940-2019), known as Pombo, his war alias, and one of the three surviving Cubans from the guerrilla detachment led by Cuban-Argentine commander Ernesto Che Guevara that fought in Bolivia in the 1960s, died in the Cuban capital at age 79.

The news was reported by the Information System of local television, which reviewed the trajectory of the guerrilla fighter, from his beginnings in the Cuban Rebel Army, during the struggle against the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958), where he joined at just 17 years old, to his participation in the guerrillas in the Congo (1965), and in Bolivia (1966-1967), both groups led by the legendary Che Guevara (1928-1967).

Villegas, who held the rank of brigadier general in the reserves of the Armed Forces of Cuba, recognized with the honorary title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba, was one of the three Cubans who managed to survive the collapse of the guerrilla group in Bolivia, where their commander, Guevara, was killed on October 7, 1967.

Along with Villegas, two others saved their lives and were able to return to Cuba: the current colonel of the Ministry of Interior, Leonardo Tamayo, identified in the guerrilla group as Urbano (the only one who survives at this moment); and Colonel Dariel Alarcón —Benigno—, who died in Paris in 2016, after distancing himself from the Cuban Revolution.

The Che guerrilla in Bolivia, as this internationalist revolutionary group is identified, operated in Bolivian territory from November 7, 1966 until mid-October 1967, with 22 acts of war recorded against the army of that South American nation, which had logistical and military support from the United States.

The guerrilla group, with Commander Che Guevara at its head, was made up of 17 Cuban fighters, 28 Bolivians, three Peruvians, two Argentines, and one Frenchman.

Among the Cubans who fought were Manuel Hernández Osorio, chief of the vanguard platoon, Dariel Alarcón, Alberto Fernández Montes de Oca, Gustavo Machín Hoed de Beche, Eliseo Reyes, Carlos Coello, and Octavio de la Concepción de la Pedraja.

Other Cubans were the chief of the guerrilla rearguard, Juan Vitalio Acuña, Israel Reyes Zayas, Jesús Suárez Gayol, Antonio Sánchez Díaz, the brothers José María and René Martínez Tamayo, Orlando Pantoja, Leonardo Tamayo, and Harry Villegas.

From that group only Villegas, Tamayo, and Alarcón survived, who died years later.