The Bolivian Diary is Che Guevara’s last diary. It was compiled from notebooks discovered in his backpack when he was captured by the Bolivian Army in October 1967 and subsequently executed in the small jungle village of Higueras. The diary became an instant international best-seller. Praising the diary, Fidel Castro stated: “Thanks to Che’s invariable habit of noting the main events of each day, we have rigorously exact, priceless, and detailed information on the heroic final months of his life in Bolivia”.
In 1967 Ernesto Che Guevara departed form Cuba to lead the Bolivian Liberation Army against the country’s military dictatorship. His ultimate aim was to instigate a revolutionary movement that would extent to his homeland of Argentina and eventually sweep throughout the continent of Latin America.
In the jungles of Bolivia, Che and his comrades attempted to re-create the guerrilla warfare that had proved so successful in Cuba. But as Che was to painfully discover the conditions in Bolivia were not ripe for insurrection. His fascinating diary notes describe in detail the troubled guerrilla campaign, right up until his final entry on the 7th October 1967, the very day before his capture and execution.
Che’s dairy is spread over almost a year and narrates his guerrilla forces’ day to day struggles to survive in the hostile and inhospitable terrain. The daily struggle for water, food, shelter and security are all dealt with in detail. As the months pass the situation becomes more difficult and hopeless. The peasants cannot be won over and the Bolivian army, now with the aid of the CIA are becoming a more organised, better equipped and disciplined force. What stands out for the reader is the quality of Che’s leadership during these times of huge difficulties. Che remains fixed on the big picture and the long term goal of their campaign, even when they do not know where their next meal may come from.
The Bolivian Diary is a great read and a tribute to the iconic revolutionary and rounded human being that Che Guevara was. He remains to this day an inspiration for a different kind of society. As his son, Camilo eloquently says of his father: “The dream now emerges of a new human being who is constantly renewed, who sacrifices themselves for others, who grows beyond mediocrity, if only for an instant, to become different, better. A dream, dormant for many centuries, takes shape: An ethical, virtuous, selfless human being. This time, stripped of all myth and mysticism, this person must be fundamentally human".
Tim Turner
