Half a century without Ernesto Guevara: "That's what Che was like"

Suptinik News - Fifty years ago, the most popular revolutionary of the 50th century was assassinated. Argentine Ernesto "Che" Guevara died in Bolivia on October 9, 1967, fighting for his ideal of social justice. Sputnik spoke with Oscar Fernández Mell, a doctor and friend of the most famous socialist.

The connection between the two began during the war against the regime of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar, in the late fifties, when the revolutionary army was in the Sierra Maestra. The young doctor Oscar Fernández Mell was in the western part of the mountain range. Che was heading to the region with a single objective: to organize the struggle.

"The first time I saw him, he was riding his mule and we greeted each other in passing. Soon we were together in a jeep along the terrible, narrow road, near an abyss and full of potholes. The vehicle would stall, reverse, slow down and start moving again. I was following along, on the side facing the emptiness," Oscar Fernández Mell, who was preparing to travel to Bolivia to honor the revolutionary leader half a century after his death, told Sputnik.

Seeing his panicked face, Che tried to distract him. In a very "Argentine" tone, he said, "When we reach our destination, I'll tell you something very important." As soon as they arrived, the guerrilla doctor began to work and forgot his promise, so Fernández Mell reminded him that he had to tell him something. "I confess it was the first time I drove a car. That's how Che was," Fernández Mell indicated.

Things like that made the Argentinian an "extraordinary" person. In Sierra Maestra, an inhospitable place, he built the first permanent camp on the site. He created a hospital, an arms factory, a sewing and shoemaking shop. In Mell's words, "It was a luxury."
Of course, the prepared camp was detected by Batista's army and began to be constantly bombarded from the air. To avoid this, Che "took a flag of the 26th of July Movement and placed it on a hill five kilometers away," recalled the doctor and friend of the revolutionary. "Then the bombardments were withdrawn, we were out of danger. Because of things like that, people said 'that's what Che would do'," he added.

The bond between them only grew stronger, and from their first meeting, "we never separated again," said Mell, who above all recounted that Che was the best man at his wedding.

They both went together on the mission that the Cuban revolutionaries began in the Belgian Congo, where they were to "overthrow" the government and seize power. Of course, the context was complex. According to Mell, three things happened there that Che "couldn't resolve."

"The information wasn't accurate. There weren't any fighters to organize, just scattered people without any military organization. Furthermore, the Tanzanian government allowed Cuban fighters to pass through its territory on their way to the Belgian Congo, but a figure like Che, recognized worldwide for his revolutionary status, caused problems at the political level," said the Argentine's friend.

"Finally, the Congolese leaders found Che while he was inside the country. He had to disappear for a while. He had many difficulties consolidating his power, although all the Cuban invasions were favorable," he continued.

The Congolese expedition of the friends, who never saw each other again, was over. Che moved on to another stage of revolutionary struggle that took him to Bolivia, from where he never left. Mell, in turn, was put in charge of a group of soldiers who were to rescue other Cubans who had stayed behind.

Mell is certain that Che's objective was not Bolivia, but Argentina. "That land was a stepping stone to continue southward. He wanted to bring revolution to his country," he said.

When news began circulating that Che had been assassinated, Fernández Mell was already in Havana. The doctor remembers exactly how that moment unfolded: "I was at the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Ramiro Valdés Menéndez [current vice-president of the Council of State] informed us of the news," he recalls.

"At that moment I realized I had lost another friend, I had lost a man who taught me to be revolutionary. It was painful for me," he recalled, admitting that even after 50 years he still misses his friend.