Authors: Jon Lee Anderson
While Che was lodged in a nondescript hotel with the rest of his large entourage, his family stayed in a villa rented by a left-wing journalist, Julia Constenla de Giussani, who had become friends with Che’s mother after interviewing her for a women’s magazine. Together with her journalist husband, Julia now edited a pro-Cuban political magazine called
Che
and worked closely with Alfredo Palacios, the venerable leader of Argentina’s socialist party. She had come to Punta del Este with a mission. On behalf of a coalition of Argentinian socialists and left-wing
peronistas
, she was to ask Che if he would be willing to return to his homeland. They wanted to propose his name for a candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
When Julia finally met with Che alone, he quickly turned down the offer. Cuba still needed him, he explained; he had a destiny there to fulfill, and he didn’t see himself as an Argentine politico. Then, looking directly at her, smiling ironically, he asked, “Madame, I am a minister. Do you see me as a parliamentary deputy in Argentina?”
There was quite a bit more to the proposal that Julia was imparting. She explained that they wanted him to lead a “symbolic” candidacy for the left. If a popular front gained power through elections, then he would have helped the effort; but if the elections were canceled and a peaceful solution was seen to be impossible, he could become the leader of a guerrilla movement, “the commander of Argentina’s revolutionary transformation.” It was up to him, she said; he could remain in Cuba, isolated, or he could help set in motion the process of change in Latin America.
“He asked me for precise details, descriptions of individuals in the various political groups, my analysis about union leaders, and Argentine politics in general,” Julia recalled. “It was like he was giving me an exam. I
think I reminded him of his youth and what he had once been, and he wanted to find out how that world he had been a part of had changed.”
Che went over Julia’s proposal point by point, even discussing the relative merits of rural over urban guerrilla warfare, but at no moment did she feel that he wavered on his decision. He seemed to her to be completely pessimistic about the prospects for change through the electoral process in Argentina, and in the ability of its leftists to bring about true social transformation. He asked her how she thought the unions would react to an armed struggle, what the prospects were for mobilizing the urban masses, and which places she thought were best for the installation of a guerrilla force. He mentioned the recent spate of small-scale terrorist activities by the Argentine left and said he was against them. “Every action taken should be something that takes one closer to the seizure of power,” Che said, “and after the seizure of power, the goal should be the conquest of the national territory.”
Julia recalled that there had been a logic to all his questioning. There were Argentinians in Cuba undergoing military training. She represented the viewpoints of those who had stayed behind; those who, as she put it, “were not within the bureaucratic structure of the export of the Cuban model.”
Julia found Che to be a complex and fascinating man with a mean streak. One evening, dining with Che and his family, she reminded him of the dedication he had written in a copy of
Guerra de Guerrillas
that he sent to Alfredo Palacios: “To Dr. Palacios, who, when I was a child, was already talking about revolution.” Palacios was thrilled and flattered, but Julia had understood that there was another, ungenerous significance to the words: Palacios had only
talked
. She thought that Che’s remark was cruel, and she told him so. Che replied, simply, “That’s all he ever did.”
“With that he ended the discussion,” Julia said. “He could be really disrespectful to some people, and he was capable of saying hurtful things. ... It was as though the only people who merited his respect were the dispossessed, a hungry worker, a malnourished peasant. Even his parents didn’t seem to merit the same respect.” (This was a trait that had not gone unnoticed by others. Che had refused to give his parents any financial help that would allow them to visit him. His mother had come to Cuba for a second visit in 1960, and then Ernesto senior had written to Hilda to say he was trying to save up enough money to come. He and Celia wanted to meet their newest granddaughter, Aleidita, and to see Hildita again. When Hilda asked Che why he wouldn’t help them, he retorted sharply, “So, you’re one of those who don’t believe I’m on a fixed salary and can use the public funds as I like?” Hilda denied she meant anything of the kind. “I only suggested you pay your father’s passage because he wants to come,” she said.
“You can pay it back in installments.” Che calmed down, but he put the discussion off.)
Julia thought that Che was immensely attractive, in spite of his apparent character flaws. “As a person he had an incalculable enchantment that came completely naturally,” she said. “When he entered a room, everything began revolving around him.” Perhaps part of the charm, for a woman, was his physical vulnerability. A few days after arriving at Punta del Este, he had such a severe attack of asthma that he had to spend a night in an oxygen tent. The next day, he was able to walk around, but he was still in great discomfort and breathing with difficulty. At one point he gestured discreetly to Julia that he wanted to meet her in the lobby outside. She went ahead and he appeared a couple of minutes later. He said nothing but leaned close to her, so that no one could see what he was doing. He took out his inhaler, sucked on it, then quickly slipped it back in his pocket. Afterward, whenever Che gave Julia the signal, she immediately went out into the hall. “This happened seven or eight times during the conference,” she said. “One time, he was in such a bad state that he leaned against the wall and gestured limply for me to get the inhaler from his pocket. He didn’t have the strength.”
Another Argentinian at the conference in Punta del Este, Ricardo Rojo, also came bearing a message for Che. Rojo had resigned his post in Bonn to protest President Frondízi’s policies, especially the decision to grant U.S. companies oil-exploration rights in Argentina, a move seen by many as an affront to the country’s national sovereignty. But Rojo was not the kind of man to burn his bridges entirely, and he now carried a message from Frondízi, who wanted to meet with Che in secret. Rojo had been stunned when approached by an intermediary to deliver the message. Frondízi was already deeply unpopular with the armed forces; there had been numerous coup plots and revolts against him; and such a meeting, if ever made public, could only weaken his already tenuous hold on power.
Che agreed to the encounter. He had already accepted a similar overture for a meeting with the president of Brazil, Janio Quadros. The two South American leaders were vital links in the Kennedy adminstration’s proposed Alliance for Progress, and both had been involved in previous unsuccessful attempts to mediate between Cuba and the United States. It was agreed that Che would travel to Buenos Aires after the conference ended, and from there go on to Brasília.
On August 16, in his closing remarks, Che declared that Cuba could not ratify the resolution to support the Alliance for Progress. Few of Cuba’s suggestions had been discussed seriously, he pointed out, and few substantive changes had been made in what he considered a seriously flawed document. Finally, because it was, in the end, an initiative aimed at isolating Cuba,
his government could not possibly approve it, but he took the occasion to reiterate Cuba’s willingness to talk with the United States “on any issue, without preconditions.”
The following night, at his behest, and with the connivance of some Argentine and Brazilian diplomats, Che was introduced to Richard Goodwin, who was then President Kennedy’s personal assistant and a key member of the U.S. delegation. As Goodwin told President Kennedy later, the encounter came about after he had rejected several prior efforts by the Brazilians and Argentinians to get the two of them together. While having dinner with an Argentine delegate, a pair of Brazilian newspapermen, “and a couple of blonds,” Goodwin had been invited to a birthday party for one of the Brazilian delegates to the conference. On the way to the party, he had jokingly asked the Argentine, “You’re sure Che won’t be there?” His friend had protested vehemently that he wouldn’t have set Goodwin up.
“There were about thirty people at the party,” Goodwin wrote to Kennedy, “drinking and dancing to American music. I talked with several people and, after about an hour, I was told Che was coming. In a few minutes he arrived. I did not talk to him, but all the women in the party swarmed around him. Then one of the Brazilians said that Che had something important to say to me.” They adjourned to an adjoining room, where they talked for the next “20–40 minutes,” with interruptions from waiters and autograph-seekers, until Goodwin broke off the conversation.
Goodwin found Che quite different from the daunting public figure he had observed from a distance. As he described the encounter to Kennedy, “Che was wearing green fatigues, and his usual overgrown and scraggly beard. Behind the beard his features are quite soft, almost feminine, and his manner is intense. He has a good sense of humor, and there was considerable joking back and forth during the meeting. He seemed very ill at ease when we began to talk, but soon became relaxed and spoke freely. Although he left no doubt of his personal and intense devotion to Communism, his conversation was free of propaganda and bombast. He spoke calmly, in a straightforward manner, and with the appearance of detachment and objectivity. He left no doubt, at any time, that he felt completely free to speak for his government and rarely distinguished between his personal observations and the official positions of the Cuban government. I had the definite impression that he had thought out his remarks very carefully—they were extremely well organized.”
Goodwin said he told Che that he possessed no authority to negotiate, but that he would report what Che said to the relevant officials of the U.S. government. “Guevara began by saying that I must understand the Cuban revolution,” Goodwin recalled. “They intend to build a socialist state, and
the revolution which they have begun is irreversible. They are also now out of the U.S. sphere of influence, and that too is irreversible. They will establish a single-party system with Fidel as Secretary-General of the party. Their ties with the East stem from natural sympathies, and common beliefs in the power structure of the social order. They feel that they have the support of the masses for their revolution, and that that support will grow as time passes.”
Che warned Goodwin that if the United States thought Fidel could be overthrown from within, or believed he was actually a moderate surrounded by fanatics and could be won over by the West, these were false assumptions. The revolution was strong and could withstand such threats. He spoke of Cuba’s appeal throughout the hemisphere, and warned that civil war would break out in many countries if Cuba was attacked. He brought up again the contradictions he saw inherent in the Alliance for Progress, which he thought might set loose forces that would escape the Americans’ ability to control, leading to Cuba-style revolution. “He spoke with great intensity of the impact of Cuba on the continent and the growing strength of its example.”
Che spoke candidly of Cuba’s problems: the armed counterrevolution-ary attacks; disaffection on the part of the petite bourgeoisie and the Catholic Church; the damage caused by the U.S. embargo; the lack of spare parts or of means to replace them; the inability to import consumer goods; and insufficient currency reserves. He told Goodwin that Cuba “didn’t want an understanding with the U.S.”—Cuba knew this would be impossible—but a “modus vivendi.” In return, Guevara said, Cuba could agree not to make “any political alliance with the East.” The expropriated American companies could not be returned, but compensation would be worked out in the form of trade. Cuba would hold free elections once the revolution had been institutionalized. The U.S. naval base at Guantánamo “of course” would not be attacked, Che said, and “laughed as if at the absurdly self-evident nature of such a sentiment.” He also hinted “obliquely” that Cuba would be willing to “discuss the activities of the Cuban revolution in other countries.”
Che couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a jab about how beneficial the invasion had been for Cuba, saying that it had “transformed them from an aggrieved little country to an equal.” But he had come not to goad Washington, but only to propose some form of negotiations. Before their meeting ended, he told Goodwin he would relay the substance of their conversation only to Fidel. Goodwin said he would not “publicize” it, either.
Goodwin saw Che’s overture as a sign of weakness. He wrote to Kennedy that he believed the conversation—“coupled with other evidence that has been accumulating—indicates that Cuba is undergoing severe
economic stress, that the Soviet Union is not prepared to undertake the large effort necessary to get them on their feet, and that Cuba desires an understanding with the U.S. It is worth remembering that Guevara undoubtedly represents the most dedicated Communist views of the Cuban government—and if there is room for any spectrum of viewpoint in Cuba there may be other Cuban leaders even more anxious for an accommodation within the U.S.”
Goodwin outlined a series of actions for Kennedy to take. They included stepping up the economic pressure against Cuba and taking retaliatory measures against anyone doing business with the Castro regime, as well as intensifying anti-Cuban propaganda while simultaneously trying to find “some way of continuing the below-ground dialogue which Che has begun. We can thus make it clear that we want to help Cuba and would help Cuba if it would sever Communist ties and begin democratization. In this way we can begin to probe for the split in top leadership which might exist.”
Was Che’s offer sincere? Perhaps. He sought a means of stalling Washington’s policy of “regional containment.” But the offer held little substance. Membership in the Warsaw Pact was a formality Cuba could easily forgo. And if the United States accepted recompensation in the form of trade with Cuba, it could hardly enforce its trade embargo on other countries. As for elections, once the revolution was institutionalized and the remaining malcontents had left the island, this was a process that the revolution could easily control.