The embassy received reports of people in the hinterlands speaking a peculiar brand of Spanish and heard names that were the same as Castro's confederates, including "Guevara." "Well, there are lots of Guevara's in Bolivia," Henderson added, "and a number of them are known revolutionaries of one kind or another." One of these was Moises Guevara, head of a radical communist faction, who cooperated closely with Che Guevara, provided recruits, took part in his jungle operations, and died in action.
Early in March, well before the first ambush, rumors reaching the Bolivian government became somewhat more specific: Something very peculiar was going on in southeastern Bolivia, near the Nancahuazu River. A guerrilla named Marcos, returning from a training march, stopped at a government oil-pumping station and, making the unlikely claim that he was a Mexican engineer, tried to buy food, meanwhile letting his weapon be seen. Thereupon, a suspicious employee followed him much of the way back to the guerrillas' camp. Several days later, Marcos and his group were spotted again, this time from the air.
Furthermore, according to Barrientos at least, on March 12 and 13 Indians in the south of the country reported seeing a strange group of bearded men. Barrientos said they reported this to him personally. Although American officials tended to be skeptical of the entire story, it seems very likely that Indian campesino informants brought in some of the earliest reports of Guevara's group to various Bolivian authorities. At first Barrientos and his military commanders doubted that there was much to these stories, expecting at most to find smugglers, probably of narcotics. In fact, on January 19, police arrived at a part of Guevara's encampment looking for the "cocaine factory." They searched a house there, took the pistol of one of the guerrillas, and warned him that "they knew everything."
A day or so before Guevara returned from a long march on which he reconnoitered the area, Bolivian armed forces reached a house at the edge of his encampment. Reminiscent of his headquarters in the Sierra Maestra, the encampment by then had become an enormous settlement of interconnected hubs, complete with a field kitchen, bakery, butchery, infirmary, dormitories, and defensive entrenchments. Searching the area around the house, the soldiers discovered man-made caves that contained suitcases and satchels filled with personal belongings— mostly clothes, some of which, they noted, were made in Cuba and Mexico. In addition, they found a few folders with notes concerning Quechua, apparently part of the group's effort to learn that language, though the predominant Indian language in that region was Guarani.
The soldiers made off with what they found, and the guerrillas, when they returned from their march, failed to understand what had happened. The disappearance of the stashed items immediately became a source of bickering and confusion. One of the guerrillas, Harry Villegas Tamayo (code-named Pombo), recorded on March 21: "We are having a problem with the things we were keeping in reserve. Nato does not know where the things in the caves have been put and accuses Antoio [sic] and Marcos of having taken them out. They in turn accuse him."
The find led the Bolivians to conclude correctly that they had an international cabal of some kind on their hands but also to conclude incorrectly that it consisted of various groups spread out over a wide area in southern Bolivia, more than 100 miles in length. Within a few weeks, the guerrillas abandoned the encampment, and the Bolivian Army, discovering the site's entire scope, became surer than ever that it faced many hundreds of insurgents.
On March 15, Bolivian authorities' suspicions that they had a political insurrection on their hands were confirmed. That day, they arrested two men who they noticed were making "unduly generous offers" for food supplies and, according to a U.S. embassy report, attempting to sell a .22-caliber rifle. Under interrogation the following day, the two, who were Bolivian deserters from Guevara's force, described the band—very accurately, as we now know from Guevara's Bolivian diary. Among other things, the men stated that the band had ample but unspecified arms and plenty of funds and that Guevara led it, although oddly they said that they had never seen him. Corroborating the captives' remarks, Bolivian Army sources felt certain they could hear coded radio transmissions from the presumed guerrilla area. Considering all of the available evidence, the Bolivians believed the prisoners' testimony to be accurate, with one important exception: Barrientos did not believe that Guevara was involved. The Americans doubted the entire story. 20 On March 17, the army captured a Bolivian guerrilla sentry near the camp. He also provided information and completed the undistinguished trio— "two deserters, one prisoner"—mentioned scornfully in Guevara's diary.
Guevara, still on maneuvers with part of his band, knew nothing of the arrests for four days. When he heard of them, he learned also that a six-man unit had attacked "the farm," as he called a part of his camp. Also at about this time, according to Bolivian reports, one guerrilla was killed and two captured. If these reports are accurate, the actions must have occurred in the raid on the farm. In addition, Guevara states that on March 20 one of his men killed a soldier somewhere in the area, possibly in the same attack.
Obviously, the two sides by now were coming into contact and beginning to take casualties. As they did, Guevara encouraged his men to be bold and seek combat, angry that the rear guard he had left at the farm pulled out in the face of a very light Bolivian assault. At the same time, army units began probing cautiously to ascertain guerrilla positions, while small surveillance aircraft buzzed over Guevara's camp and the surrounding areas.
Not the Sierra Maestra
