Guevara Disappearance Still a Mystery

June 17, 1965 - Premier Fidel Castro said in a speech today that his Government was under no obligation to tell the world the whereabouts of Ernesto (Che) Guevara (pictured left last year). 

Castro said the Cuban people would receive news about the Argentine-born Communist who was Cuba’s Industrial Minister “when Major Guevara so wants.”

Scoffing at international speculation about Guevara, Castro said:“When will the people know about Major Guevara? When Major Guevara so wants. Will it know? Yes, it will know. What do we know? Nothing. What do we think? Yes, we think that Major Guevara always has and always perform revolutionary acts.

Castro thus implicitly denied reports that Guevara was dead or seriously ill.

The Premier discussed Guevara’s status publicly for the first time since April 18. He told foreign newspaperman then that Guevara “will always serve where he is most useful.”

Guevara’s last post in Cuba was that of Industry Minister. He vanished shortly after his return March 14 from a long tour of African and Asian countries. A nonpracticing physician, Guevara was militant in extreme left-wing movements in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica before he met the Castro brothers, Fidel and Raul, in Mexico in 1956 and worked with them in achieving the Cuban revolution.

Guevara’s disappearance has been variously attributed to the failure of the Cuban industrialization scheme he had advocated while Industry Minister; to pressure exerted on Castro by Soviet officials who disapprove of Guevara’s pro-Chinese communist stance; and to serious differences between Guevara and Castro regarding Cuba’s economic development and ideological line.

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