August 31 - The first serious defeat comes about in Vado del Yeso with the loss of 9 guerrilla fighters, and Paco's capture; the latter is transferred by the J-2 with all documents to La Paz.

"On August 31st the army set a trap for the column of Major Acuña Núñez (Joaquín), in a spot called Vado del Yeso. The guerrillas lost nine men; Paco was taken prisoner and he was forced to identify the bodies of the dead guerrillas." pp. 214-215

Summary of the month - My illness led to uncertainty . . . 1.- We continue without any kind of contact and have no reasonable hope of establishing any in the near future. 2.- We continue without any peasant recruitment. This is understandable given the lack of dealings we have had with them in the recent period. 3.- There is a decrease --hopefully temporary-- in combat morale.

The guerrilla was engaged in some minor clashes, but the confrontation which determined the Guevarista decline occurred on August 31 with the ambush at Vado del Yeso, as Joaquín's column was led into a trap by the peasant Honorato Rojas.

The action had lasted only fifteen or twenty minutes, but the entire rebel group had been wiped out--except for Paco, who was taken prisoner. The soldiers thought that they had been fighting Guevara's group, but Paco had disabused them of this illusion when he identified the corpses of his comrades: Joaquín, the leader of the group; Braulio, the second in command; Polo; Wálter; the Bolivian doctor Ernesto; and Moisés Guevara. The bodies of Tania and El Negro were washed away by the current. The only thing of Tania's that could be recovered was her knapsack with a notebook, a list of names and addresses that the authorities presumed were those of city contacts, and her identity card--issued in the name of Laura Gutiérrez Bauer.

September 1st - At 20:00 hrs. three peasants turned up in front of Honorato Rojas' house: Santos, Veizaga and Burgos who were coming from Ipita in the south.

September 2 - The radio reported an ugly news item concerning the annihilation of a group of ten men led by a Cuban named Joaquín, in the Camiri region. However, this item was transmitted by the Voice of America; the local stations have said nothing.

September 3 - Skirmish in Yajo Pampa. Ché's column keeps advancing north in search of more favorable zones.

September 3 - They ambush a soldiers' patrol and kill Honorato Rojas' horse.

September 3 - The Voice of America reported again on battles with the army, this time naming José Carrillo as the sole survivor of a group of ten men. Since this Carrillo is Paco, one of the rejects, and the annihilation occurred in Masicurí, everything seems to indicate this is a pack of lies.

September 4 - They clash with a section of the Batallion of Engineers in Yajo Pampa, and they kill a soldier.

September 4 - The radio is reporting news of a death at the Vado del Yeso, in a new clash, close to where the group of ten men was annihilated. This appears to confirm that the report about Joaquín is a lie. On the other hand, they did give a physical description of Negro, the Peruvian doctor, killed in Palmarito, whose body was transported to Camiri. Pelado helped in the identification.

September 7 - Tania's corpse is found, decomposed and floating in Río Grande. All of her documents are gathered by Lieut. Col. Selich and personally delivered by the J-2 to the Second Department. The Galindo Company reports that on the 5th, the reds have withdrawn by way of the Río Grande, above Puerto Mauricio.

September 7 - Radio Cruz del Sur is announcing the discovery of the body of Tania the guerrilla on the banks of the Río Grande. This news item does not have the same ring of truth as the one about Negro.

September 8 - When Tania’s unrecognizable body was brought to Vallegrande, President Barrientos personally ordered that as a woman she be honored with religious rites and given a “Christian” burial. But Tania was not buried in the local graveyard. That night, carrying out the morbid policy to “disappear” the dead guerrillas, Lieutenant Colonel Selich took charge of the operation to bury her secretly, as he had done with the others. “Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life” - Jon Lee Anderson, Grove Press. P. 726

September 8 - They are being pursued through Chuchial, west of Puerto Mauricio.

Fuentes