"This time, thanks to his invariable habit of writing down the main daily events, we can have detailed, accurate and invaluable information about those heroic final months of his life in Bolivia." With these words written in the prologue of ''El Diario del Che in Bolivia'' (Che’s Bolivian Diary), Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz informs the Cuban people and the world what happened to Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and his guerrilla comrades in Bolivia.
El Diario del Che in Bolivia is distributed for the first time in Cuba on July 1, 1968 and is published almost simultaneously in France, Italy, the former Federal Republic of Germany, Chile and Mexico. The prologue of this first edition was written by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz who introduces, motivates and masterfully prepares for the reading of Che's latest legacy.
With a clear and precise language Fidel refers, first of all, to Che's habit of writing in a newspaper, during the few moments of rest, the events of the guerrilla's life and how that habit made it possible to know what happened during the last months of his life.
The Commander in Chief points out that Cuba had no alternative but to publish them, since the references to the Revolution and its relations with the guerrilla movement could be taken as a challenge that would lead to the intensification of the blockade, isolation and imperialist aggressions; without taking into account the real reason: solidarity with the Bolivian people.
In contrast, he explains the reasons of the Government and the Bolivian Army not to publish the newspaper: the description that Che does of the Barrientos regime and the military defeats suffered, before a small group of guerrillas that in a few weeks snatched about two hundred weapons in combat.
The United States Government, the Pentagon, and the Central Intelligence Agency had almost immediate access to the newspaper, but they would definitely never publish it. Reasons ? the fear of Che’s example in American territory. The photo of the guerrilla, as a symbol of his ideals, was present during the demonstrations of the people.
Reading the prologue of the first edition of the Diario del Che in Bolivia, leaves no doubt about his qualities as a leader and the purpose of his struggle: to organize a revolutionary movement that would soon spread to other countries in South America.
Referring to the courage of the guerrillas, Fidel wrote: "The feat done by this handful of revolutionaries impresses deeply. The single struggle against the hostile nature in which they developed their action constitutes an insurmountable page of heroism. Never in history had a small number of men undertaken such a gigantic task.
The preface written by the Commander in Chief makes the 1st edition of ''El Diario del Che in Bolivia'' very valuable: it informs, details the guerrilla struggle so that the reader understands the decisions taken by Che and how his experience and courage influenced them . He explains the adverse factors he faced, denounces the position of Mario Monje as head of the Bolivian Communist Party and the imperialist support for the annihilation of the guerrillas.
In the final paragraphs, the conditions of Che's last combat, his capture and his murder are narrated. Fidel ensures the authenticity of the pages by examining all the photostatic copies, in addition to the comparison with the diaries and testimonies of the surviving guerrillas.
The editorial and industrial process for the circulation of one million copies of the Cuban edition of ''El Diario del Che in Bolivia'', on July 1, 1968, was organized in silence, which meant a triumph for the noble ideas of justice and freedom of those who wrote the pages, a victory of the most legitimate causes of the struggle of peoples around the world.
