THIRD STAGE

“CHÉ, THE MINISTER”

(Since the occupation of La Cabaña Fortress on January 2, 1959
to the farewell letter to Fidel in 1965)

The man grows and becomes a giant in the fight. The legendary figure of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Ché for the people of Cuba and for the whole world) grows more and more as his unstoppable march brings him to Havana.

The Capital of the Republic, until that moment agitated by the clandestine struggle and the mass movement, receives the first “barbudos” headed by two living legends: Ché and Camilo.
Carrying out the orders of the Commander in chief, and shortly after the decisive battle in Santa Clara, the guerilla commanders enter the capital with the intention of occupying (not even a shot was needed) the two principal barracks of Batista’s army. San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress, an ancient 18th century castle on the margins of the Havana’s harbor is occupied by Ché, who establishes there his headquarters, in a house built in the 19th century to be the dwelling of the commander of the square. For his part, Camilo Cienfuegos occupied the Columbia camp in the populous neighborhood of Marianao.

After the first moments, the strong emotions of the victory and the arrival of Fidel to Havana (on January 8, 1959), the top leader of the Revolution called Ché to accomplish other tasks that moved him away from the armaments and the military strategy. Since the already “old” days of the Hombrito and the Headquarters of Column No. 4 in La Mesa, Ernesto Guevara had proved very well his excellent virtues as organizer of the economy and the incipient industry of the liberated areas (see First Stage). Therefore, it was logical to make him responsible - on October 7, 1959) of this front in the new battle to come: make of Cuba an independent and prosperous country.

All his potential will be now revealed when he organizes the production and the advanced economic thinking . This is the moment when, CHÉ, THE MINISTER is born.

But those first months of the year 1959 are full of important events in his personal life. On February 9, he is declared Cuban Citizen, by virtue of a law of the Revolutionary Government and on June 2, the gets married with Aleida March de la Torre, his partner since the wartime in the Escambray (for more information – Chronology Third Stage)

His virtues as an economist become more evident day after day. As the head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of the Agrarian Reform (INRA) he begins a huge work in order to plan the country’s economic development.

“The original contribution of Ernesto Guevara to the socialist planning was the 1963-1964 Budgetary Financing System. Essentially, it was the first attempt to organize the State economy of the country. Nevertheless, the previous process of its formulation was the designation of Ché as a government figure. Effectively, The occupation and nationalization policy of the Cuban Revolution had a strong industrialist intention.” (Marcelo Luna – “El Ché Guevara Economista” - luna@icarodigital.com.ar)

But he devoted not only his talent and his efforts to the economic planning. One of his main concerns was the conception of the ways and means to eliminate in the people’s mind the characteristic traces of the capitalist society. That’s why he said: “I’m not interested in the economic socialism without a communist moral. We fight against misery, but at the same time, we fight against alienation. One of the main objectives of Marxism is to make disappear the interest, the “individual interest” and profit factor, from the psychological motivations. Marx was interested in the economic facts but also in their translation in the people’s mind. He called it a “fact of conscience”. If the communism neglects the facts of conscience, it can be a distribution method, but it stops being a revolutionary moral […] Communism is a conscience phenomenon and not only a production phenomenon.” (Interview made by Jean Daniel, 1963 – bimonthly meetings, 21/12/1963 – in Marcelo Luna, “El Ché Guevara Economista”) (Ché Guevara, the Economist)

This is one of the less mentioned facets of Ché’s personality. His virtues as combatant and guerilla leader are more known, as well as his personal courage and his warrior qualities. But in his case, we could use the words of José Martí, the National Hero of Cuba, who said one day referring to another giant of the 19th century independence war against Spain, Antonio Maceo. The Apostle of our Independence said that Maceo had as much strength in his arm as in his ideas.

“Orlando Borrego Díaz fought with Ernesto Ché Guevara before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in the Invasion Column No. 8 “Ciro Redondo” commanded by Ché, in which Borrego was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. After the power was taken, and when everything had to be done, Ché called him to collaborate with him in the Department of Industrialization and later in the Ministry of Industry, where they were minister and vice-minister respectively”.

A person like him, so close to Ché, said that Commander Guevara was an exceptional man for a series of reasons: “First, his total honesty. Secondly, his capacity for sacrifice, his austerity, his extraordinary will express in different facets: in the study, in the work, in the human relations, in his capacity to criticize, in his antidogmatism. In his charismatic character, in his internationalism: everything he made for Cuba he made it thinking in Latin America and the world. Another of his exceptional characteristics was his extraordinary faith in youth. And of course, his personal courage expressed not only during the struggle but also after the power was taken, to discuss what he didn’t consider rational, consistent, real. He faced each phenomenon with a great critical spirit based on a deep study of each phenomenon and with an “unquestionable” – from my point of view - scientific rigor “. (Ximena Ortúzar, El Siglo – Interview granted by Orlando Borrego "El Ché era un hombre de un optimismo total") (Ché was a man who had a total optimism).

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna had strong ideas that made him go beyond his time and his century, proving with facts that a better society was possible in Latin America. That’s why he left to other lands, to continue the work he began in Cuba and to materialize his dream of seeing a Latin America where men were brothers. For this dream, he renounced to everything and he wrote in his farewell letter: “I renounce formally to my position in the Party Direction, to my position of Minister, to my rank of Commander, to my Cuban condition. Nothing legal ties me to Cuba, only links of another kind that cannot be broken like the appointments.” (Ché’s farewell letter to Fidel)

And he said goodbye this way to everybody: his comrades, his people, his children and his parents.

[March 1965]

“Dear Mom and Dad:

I feel once again Rocinante ribcage under my heels, and I return to the road with mi leather shield in my arm. Almost ten years ago, I wrote you another farewell letter. I remember that I was complaining because I wasn’t a better soldier and a better doctor. I’m no more interested in the second thing, and as a soldier I’m not so bad.

Nothing has changed in essence, with the exception that I am much more conscious; my Marxism is deeply rooted and polished. I believe in the armed struggle as the only solution for peoples that fight for their freedom and I am consequent with my beliefs. Many will call me adventurer, and I am, but just a different type, one of those who risk their necks to prove their truth.

Maybe this is the last one. I am not looking for that, but it enters the logical calculation of probabilities. If so, I give you a last hug.
I have loved you a lot, I just couldn’t know how to express my love, I’m extremely rigid in my actions, and I believe that you didn’t understand me sometimes. It wasn’t easy to understand me. On the other hand, believe me, only today. Now, a will I have polished with artist’s delectation shall support my flaccid legs and my tired lungs. I will do it.

Remember from time to time this small condotieri of the 20th century. A kiss for Celia, Roberto, Juan Martin and Patotín, for Beatriz, for everybody. A big hug of your prodigal and recalcitrant son for you.

Ernesto.”