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Published Thursday, December 31, 1998, in the Miami Herald
SANTA CLARA, Cuba -- (AP) -- The remains of 10 guerrilla fighters who fell
alongside Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara in Bolivia, including the German woman known
as Tania, were interred with military honors Wednesday in this central Cuban
city.
They died 31 years ago in a failed attempt to spread an armed Marxist
revolution across the Americas -- an effort that even Cuba today has renounced.
But Ramiro Valdes, a former aide to Guevara, insisted that they remained an
example for those struggling against ``the Yankee enemy'' and U.S. domination of
the hemisphere.
``Times may change. Conditions and methods also change,'' he said,
addressing the memorial service beneath a towering statue of Guevara. ``[But]
the objectives for which they battled continue to be an objective and an
aspiration for the Latin American people.''
Chief honors were given to Haydee Tamara Bunke, the guerrilla known by the
nom de guerre of Tania, whose life has fascinated many sympathizers of the Cuban
Revolution. Her nickname was adopted by newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst when
she briefly joined the radical Symbionese Liberation Army that had kidnapped her
in Berkeley, Calif., in 1974.
Bunke was born in 1937 in Argentina to German parents who had fled Adolf
Hitler's Nazi state.
The family returned to the new communist East German state after the war,
and Bunke eventually became a translator. She met Guevara there when he was on a
trade mission in 1960 and became fascinated with the Argentine physician's goal
of spreading socialism throughout South America.
She came to Cuba, worked in government offices, and then was sent to Bolivia
on an undercover mission to help prepare the way for Guevara's guerrilla
struggle there. She eventually joined his fighters and was killed as the band
was defeated in late 1967.
Her remains, found in Bolivia in September, have now been enshrined
alongside those of Guevara and his rebel comrades at a memorial in Santa Clara.
Guevara's remains were interred last year.
Vice President Raul Castro presided over Wednesday's interment, which
included a solemn military parade of the small caskets draped with Cuban and
Bolivian flags.
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald |