Cubaanse Republiek
 
 

 
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna
June 14, 1928  

Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina. His parents are Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna. He will be the oldest of five children. 

(picture shows Che with his parents after the Cuban Revolution)
   
1945 Guevara family moves to Buenos Aires.
   
1945–51 Ernesto Guevara is enrolled at medical school in Buenos Aires.
   
January–July 1952 Guevara visits Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. While in Peru he works in a leper colony treating patients.
   
March 1953 Guevara graduates as a doctor.
   
July 6, 1953 After graduating, Guevara travels throughout Latin America. He visits Bolivia, observing the impact of the 1952 revolution.
   
December 1953 Guevara has first contact with a group of survivors of the Moncada attack in San José, Costa Rica.
   
December 24, 1953 Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz.
   
January 4, 1954 Guevara meets Nico López, a veteran of the Moncada attack, in Guatemala City.
   
January–June 1954 Unable to find a medical position in Guatemala, Guevara obtains various odd jobs. He studies Marxism and becomes involved in political activities, meeting exiled Cuban revolutionaries.
   
June 17, 1954 Mercenary forces backed by the CIA invade Guatemala. Guevara volunteers to fight.
  
August 1954 Mercenary troops enter Guatemala City and begin massacring supporters of the Arbenz regime. Arbenz resigned at June 27, 1954. Che Guevara takes refuge in Argentine Embassy.
  
September 21, 1954 Guevara arrives in Mexico City after fleeing Guatemala; subsequently gets a job as a doctor at the Central Hospital.
  
June 1955 Guevara encounters Ñico López, who is also in Mexico City. Several days later López arranges a meeting for him with Raúl Castro.
  
July 1955 Guevara meets Fidel Castro and immediately enrolls as the third confirmed member of the future guerrilla expedition. Guevara subsequently becomes involved in training combatants, with the Cubans giving him the nickname “Che,” an Argentine term of greeting.
   
June 24, 1956 Guevara is arrested as part of a roundup by Mexican police of 28 expeditionaries, including Fidel Castro. Guevara is detained for 57 days.
   
November 25, 1956 Eighty-two combatants, including Guevara as doctor, sail for Cuba aboard the small cabin cruiser Granma, leaving from Tuxpan in Mexico.
    
December 2, 1956  
The Granma reaches Cuba at Las Coloradas beach in Oriente Province (Today's Granma province).
   
December 5, 1956  
The rebel combatants are surprised by Batista’s troops at Alegría de Pío and dispersed. A majority of the guerrillas are either murdered or captured; Guevara is wounded.
   
December 21, 1956 Guevara’s group reunites with Fidel Castro; at this point there are 15 fighters in the Rebel Army.
   
July 1957 Rebel Army organizes a second column. Guevara is selected to lead it and is promoted to the rank of commander.
   
August 31, 1958 Guevara leads an invasion column from the Sierra Maestra toward Las Villas Province in central Cuba, and days later signs the Pedrero Pact with the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate, which had a strong guerrilla base there. Several days earlier Camilo Cienfuegos had been ordered to lead another column toward Pinar del Río Province on the western end of Cuba.
   
October 16, 1958 The Rebel Army column led by Guevara arrives in the Escambray Mountains.
   
December 1958 Rebel columns of Guevara and the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate, and Camilo Cienfuegos with a small guerrilla troop of the Popular Socialist Party, capture a number of towns in Las Villas Province and effectively cut the island in half.
   
December 28, 1958  

Guevara’s column begins the battle of Santa Clara, the capital of Las Villas.

 

 

 
santatren002.jpg (832353 bytes)
   
   
January 1, 1959  
santaclaraprovincial001.jpg (754341 bytes) Batista flees Cuba. A military junta takes over. Fidel Castro opposes the new junta and calls for the revolutionary struggle to continue. Santa Clara falls to the Rebel Army. Guevara and Cienfuegos are ordered immediately to Havana.
   
January 2, 1959  
fortaleza001.jpg (90457 bytes) Cuban workers respond to Fidel Castro’s call for a general strike and the country is paralyzed. The Rebel Army columns of Guevara and Cienfuegos arrive in Havana. Guevara’s column occupies La Cabaña fortress, a former bastion of Batista’s army.
   
February 9, 1959 Guevara is declared a Cuban citizen in recognition of his contribution to Cuba’s liberation.
  
June 12–September 8, 1959 Guevara travels through Europe, Africa and Asia. He signs a number of commercial, technical and cultural agreements.
   
October 7, 1959 Guevara is designated head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).
   
November 26, 1959 Guevara is appointed president of the National Bank of Cuba.
October 20, 1960 Che writes "To be a young Communist".
   
October 21, 1960
che004_mao.jpg (12780 bytes) Guevara leaves on extended visit to Soviet Union, German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, China and North Korea.
   
January 6, 1961 Guevara reports to Cuban people on economic agreements signed with Soviet Union and other countries.
   
February 23, 1961  
Ministry of Industry established, headed by Guevara.
   
August 8, 1961 Guevara delivers speech to Organization of American States (OAS) Economic and Social Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, as head of Cuba’s delegation.
   
March 8, 1962 Guevara becomes a member of the National Directorate. The National Directorate of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) is established, based on fusion of the July 26 Movement, Popular Socialist Party and Revolutionary Directorate; 
   
August 27 – September 7, 1962 Guevara makes second visit to the Soviet Union.
   
October 22, 1962  
portales002.jpg (98828 bytes) President Kennedy initiates the “Cuban Missile Crisis,” denouncing Cuba’s acquisition of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads for defense against U.S. attack. Washington imposes a naval blockade on Cuba. Cuba responds by mobilizing its population for defense. Guevara is assigned to lead forces in Pinar del Río Province in preparation for an imminent U.S. invasion.
   
1963 United Party of Socialist Revolution (PURS) is formed. Guevara becomes a member of its National Directorate.
   
July 3–17, 1963 Guevara visits Algeria, then recently independent under the government of Ahmed Ben Bella.
   
March 1964 Guevara meets with Tamara Burke (Tania) and discusses her mission to move to Bolivia in anticipation of a future guerrilla expedition.
   
March 25, 1964 Guevara addresses UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.
    
November 4–9, 1964 Guevara visits the Soviet Union.
   
December 9, 1964 Guevara leaves Cuba on a three-month state visit.
   
December 11, 1964
che016_unitednations.gif (40611 bytes)

Guevara addresses the United Nations General Assembly

  

  
   
   
December 17, 1964 Guevara leaves New York for Africa, where he visits Algeria, Mali, Congo (Brazzaville), Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania and Egypt.
   
February 24, 1965 Guevara addresses the Second Economic Seminar of the Organization of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers.
   
March 14, 1965 Guevara returns to Cuba and shortly afterwards drops from public view.
   
April 1, 1965

che013_congo.jpg (19407 bytes)

 Guevara delivers a farewell letter to Fidel Castro. He subsequently leaves Cuba on an internationalist mission in the Congo (now Zaire), entering through Tanzania. Guevara operates under the name Tatú, Swahili for “number two.”
   
April 18, 1965 In answer to questions about Guevara’s whereabouts, Castro tells foreign reporters that Guevara “will always be where he is most useful to the revolution.”
   
June 16, 1965 Castro announces Guevara’s whereabouts will be revealed “when Commander Guevara wants it known.”
   
October 3, 1965 Castro publicly reads Guevara’s letter of farewell at a meeting to announce the Central Committee of the newly formed Communist Party of Cuba.
   
December 1965 Castro arranges for Guevara to return to Cuba in secret. Guevara prepares for an expedition to Bolivia.
   
March 1966 Arrival in Bolivia of the first Cuban combatants to begin advance preparations for a guerrilla detachment.
    
July 1966 Guevara meets with Cuban volunteers selected for the mission to Bolivia at a training camp in Cuba’s Pinar del Río Province.
   
November 4, 1966
che008_bolivia.jpg (4999 bytes) Guevara arrives in Bolivia in disguise and using the assumed name Adolfo Mena Gonzalez.
  
November 7, 1966 Guevara arrives at site where Bolivian guerrilla movement will be based. The first entry in Bolivian diary.
  
November–December 1966 More guerrilla combatants arrive and base camps are established.
  
December 31, 1966 Guevara meets with Bolivian Communist Party secretary Mario Monje. There is disagreement over perspectives for the planned guerrilla expedition.
  
February 1–March 20, 1967 Guerrilla detachment leaves the base camp to explore the region.
  
March 23, 1967 First guerrilla military action takes place with combatants successfully ambushing a Bolivian army column.
  
April 10, 1967 Guerrilla column conducts a successful ambush of Bolivian troops.
  
April 16, 1967 Publication of Guevara’s Message to the Tricontinental with his call for the creation of “two, three, many Vietnams.”
  
April 17, 1967 Guerrilla detachment led by Joaquín is separated from the rest of the unit. The separation is supposed to last only three days but the two groups are unable to reunite.
  
April 20, 1967 Régis Debray is arrested after having spent several weeks with a guerrilla unit. He is subsequently tried and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.
  
May 1967 U.S. Special Forces arrive in Bolivia to train counterinsurgency troops of the Bolivian army.
  
July 6, 1967 Guerrillas occupy the town of Sumaipata.
  
July 26, 1967 Guevara gives a speech to guerrillas on the significance of the July 26, 1953, attack on the Moncada garrison.
  
July 31–August 10, 1967 Organization of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS) conference is held in Havana. The conference supports guerrilla movements throughout Latin America. Che Guevara is elected honorary chair.
  
August 4, 1967 Deserter leads the Bolivian army to the guerrillas’ main supply cache; documents seized lead to arrest of key urban contacts.
  
August 31, 1967 Joaquín’s detachment is ambushed and annihilated while crossing a river after an informer leads government troops to the site.
  
September 26, 1967 Guerrillas walk into an ambush. Three are killed and government forces encircle the remaining guerrilla forces.
  
October 8, 1967 Remaining 17 guerrillas are trapped by Bolivian troops and conduct a desperate battle. Guevara is seriously wounded and captured.
    
Last picture of Che alive
 
  
October 9, 1967
Guevara and two other captured guerrillas are murdered following instructions from the Bolivian government and Washington.
   
  
October 15, 1967 In a television appearance Fidel Castro confirms news of Guevara’s death and declares three days of official mourning in Cuba. October 8 is designated Day of the Heroic Guerrilla.
  
October 18, 1967 Castro delivers memorial speech for Guevara in Havana’s Revolution Plaza before an audience of almost one million people.
  
February 22, 1968 Three Cuban survivors cross border into Chile, after having traveled across the Andes on foot to elude Bolivian army. They later return to Cuba.
   
Mid–March 1968
che010_diary.jpg (11448 bytes) Microfilm of Guevara’s Bolivian diary arrives in Cuba.
  
July 1, 1968 Guevara’s Bolivian diary published in Cuba is distributed free of charge to the Cuban people. The introduction is by Fidel Castro.