GUEVARA DOCUMENTS DETAIL PLAN FOR '2D VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP69B00369R000200270001-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 15, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Guevara Documents Detail Plan for `2d Vietnam
By JUAN de ONIS
Special to The New York Times
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 14-
The plan of Ernesto Che Gue-
ivara to create a "second Viet-
nam" in the heart of South
America emerges clearly in
captured documents that have
been made public here at the
trial of Regis Debray.
The documents include sev-
eral coded messages ex-
changed between Mr. Guevara,
;Jwho died of gunshot wounds
after a clash between Bolivian
troops and guerrillas last
:month, and a correspondent in
Havana with a code name of
"Leche." Bolivian military au-
thorities are convinced that
"Leche" is Premier Fidel
Castro.
The captured diary of Mr.
Guevara, who made daily en-
tries from Nov. 7, 1966, until
two days before he died, as
well as the messages he ex-
changed with Havana show
Mr. Guevara, a leading lieu-
tenant of Mr. Castro in the
Cuban revolution, arrived in
disguise in Bolivia saying he
was a salesman from Uruguay.
His diary begins with his ar-
rival at a secluded cattle ranch
in"the Andean foothills that had
served as the base camp for the
guerrilla operation.
Mr. Guevara was soon joined
by 17 Cubans- who led a guer-
rilla force that had 43 members
at its greatest strength. These
included Juan Pablo Chang Na-
varro, known as El Chino, a
Peruvian who was to have
opened a guerrilla front in the
highland districts of Ayacucho
and Puno in Peru,
By March Mr. Guevara had
been joined by Ciro Bustos, an
Argentine commercial artist
and cameraman who was to
organize a guerrilla movement
in Argentine with elements of
a pro-Cuban splinter group of
the Peronist movement.
The first clash between the
guerrillas and the Bolivian
Army took place March 23.
Quickly, the guerrilla zone
northeast of Camiri, where Mr.
Debray is on trial on charges of
murder and rebellion, was occu-
pied by Bolivian Army forces.
The guerrillas were trapped,
and in six months of clashes
were destroyed.
Mr. Debray and Mr. Bustos
were captured April 20 as they
tried to escape and leave Bo-
livia. Mr. Chang Navarro was
killed in a clash with army
forces in August. These re?
terday by the military pros-
ecutor, Col. Remberto Iriarte,
show that Mario Monge and
Jorge Kolle, leaders of the Mos-
cow-oriented Bolivian Commu-
nist party, traveled to Havana
to discuss helping the guerrilla
operation but were unable to
reach an understanding. As . a
result, the Bolivian party with-
held support.
Juan Lechin Oquendo, former
Vice President of Bolivia, who
has been living in Chile since
the Bolivian military seized
power in October, 1964, was
reported in the diary to have
been in direct contact with
Havana. He was urged to order
his supporters to join the
guerrillas.
Former president Victor Paz
Estenssoro, who has been in
exile in Peru since 1964, was
reportcl in one message from
Havana to have been organiz-
ing a guerrilla front on the bor-
der with Brazil through a sup
porter, Ruban Julio, a formes
Bolivian Cabinet member.
Mr. Debray and Mr. Bustos
have argued before the military
tribunal in Camiri that they
visited Mr. Guevara's guerrilla
forces on newspaper assign-
ments.
Mr. Debray could be impris-
oned for 30 years if all the
charges against him are upheld?
The court's decision is expected
Thursday. Besides Mr. Debray
and Mr. Bustos, four Bolivian
guerrillas are on trial.
that the Castro regime gave
the Guevara movement full
support as a strategic opera-
tion designed to create tur-
moil in the heartland of South
America.
Support came m the form of
money, training, political co-
ordination, intelligence and
critical supplies, such as special
medicines that were brought to
Bolivia by Cuban agents.
The role of Mr. Debray, a Z6-
year-old French Marxist writer
and ideologist who embraced
the cause of the Cuban revolu-
tion, emerges from the docu
ments as that of a high-level
messenger between Mr. Castro
and Mr. Guevara.
verses apparently helped to
stifle the plan a "second Viet-
nam?';
The texts made, public yes-
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