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19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot)
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Description
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Fidel Castro claims he has the body of Che Guevara in Cuba. The DNA evidence in this collection may prove him wrong.
Historic Che Guevara Archive, Including a Lock of His Hair, from the CIA Agent Who Supervised Che's Burial, including fingerprints, maps, letters, newspaper clippings, and dozens of death photographs of Che and his fellow guerrillas. The Cuban-born CIA agent who buried Che Guevara 40 years ago this October says his body is still in Bolivia even though Fidel Castro claims it's in Cuba. And DNA from the revolutionary's hair included in this lot can determine who is right.
Gustavo Villoldo left his native Cuba for Miami in 1959, shortly after Castro overthrew Batista. Two years later, he was intelligence and security chief of the air wing of Brigade 2506, Cuban exiles that landed at the Bay of Pigs, and took part in two B-26 strafing runs. Villoldo was later commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army to train in guerrilla and counter-insurgency. In 1964, he was recruited by the CIA. The following year, there were rumors that Che Guevara planned to encourage liberation movements in countries around the world. Villoldo and other Cuban-American CIA agents first searched for Che Guevara in the Dominican Republic and then in the Congo, based on reports he was there. In 1966, Guevara went to the jungles of Bolivia. In the summer of 1967, Villoldo was told, according to secret documents declassified in 1993, that he and another Cuban-American agent "would be engaged in training intelligence teams for the 2nd Ranger Battalion as advisors and would be based in the town of Esperanza...and were told that there were strong indications that Guevara was leading the guerrillas. Among the instructions given them was a clear one that in the event that the Bolivian Army captured Guevara, they should do everything possible 'to keep him alive.'" The agents went to La Paz and "were issued Bolivian uniforms and credentials as captains in the Bolivian Army."
An Airgram from Douglas Henderson, U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, to the Department of State, dated October 18, 1967 states, in part, that "documents released by the Military High Command on October 9 and subsequently, concerning the combat that took place at La Higuera between units of the Armed Forces and the red group commanded by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, as a result of which he, among others, lost his life, the following is established: a) Ernesto Guevara fell into the hands of our troops gravely wounded and in full use of his mental faculties. After the combat ended, he was transferred to the town of La Higuera, more or less at 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, where he died as a result of his wounds. His body was transferred to the city of Vallegrande at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 9 in a helicopter of the Bolivian Air Force. b) Two medical doctors, Dr. Moises Abraham Baptista and Dr. Jose Maria Cazo, director and intern respectively of the Knights of Malta Hospital, certified the death..."
A hastily made-up morgue had been set up behind the hospital. While Guevara's body lay on the table, Villoldo snipped off a 3" long lock of his hair from the lower right side of his head. "I wanted proof," he said, "that I had completed my mission." He held one of Guevara's hands as a doctor took the guerrilla leader's fingerprints. Villoldo recalls that two or three fingerprint cards were made; one of these cards was kept by Villoldo. Guevara's hands were then severed by the doctors so that his death could be confirmed by fingerprints on file in Argentina.
Villoldo did not want Guevara's body to be returned to Cuba where it would receive a hero's funeral, so shortly after 2 A.M. on October 11, 1967, the bodies of Che and two of his guerrillas were taken from the morgue, loaded onto a pickup truck, and driven to a runway under construction at the Vallegrande airport. When Villoldo spotted a deep, man-madedepression on the airstrip, he ordered the truck to stop. The three bodies were put into their common grave, covered with tarpaulin, and buried; Villoldo said a prayer. He also noted the coordinates of the burial site which he will give to Che's daughter, Aleida Guevara, because "she has a right to know where her father is buried. My sons and daughters would have the same right if I were put down."
Villoldo had first made this offer to Aleida Guevara in 1997. In 1995, retired Bolivian General Mario Vargas Salinas had revealed that the body was buried near the airstrip. After weeks of digging, the bodies of several guerrillas were found, but not Guevara's. In May 1997, the town of Villegrande passed an ordinance forbidding further excavation; they wanted Guevara's body to remain there and had planned a mausoleum. The Bolivian government overturned the local law and the digging resumed. On June 28th, Bolivians and Cubans found skeletal remains of seven men; one had no hands. "I put in three, they uncovered seven," comments Villoldo. "Dead people do not reproduce." On October 17, 1997, a coffin containing the skeleton with no hands was interred in a mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba, at the base of a giant statue of Che Guevara. During a 90 minute ceremony, Fidel Castro praised the revolutionary leader. After 30 years, the remains of Che Guevara had been returned to Cuba. Or were they?
This collection includes:
(1) 3" long of a lock of Che Guevara's hair cut by Gustavo Villoldo from the lower right side of Che's head after his death.
(2) Fingerprints of Che Guevara, 8.5" x 4.25", on printed form titled, in Spanish, "Customs Officers and Police/National Service of Personal Identification/Bolivia." Folds.
(3) Printed map of the Vallegrande area, 24" x 24", titled, in Spanish, "Vallegrande/Operations Zone/Ati-3." There is an area circled and labeled in ink "Muerte" ("Death"). Folds.
(4) Military Letter to Che. Autograph Letter Signed "Alejandro," one page, 4" x 6.25". In Spanish, to Ramon. "Ramon" was Che Guevara's alias. One of the photographs pictures "Ramon" and "Alejandro." The letter, on graph paper with no date, lists the time as 5:15 P.M. In full, "Ricardo arrived with the Amet 30 & instructions to replace. Previous instructions were to open fire from the position of Beneguo. Tell me if I should stay with Amet 30 or with Amet Ligera. Personnel situated as indicated on reverse." A map showing the individual location and aliases of Che's 11 soldiers is drawn on verso. Mid-horizontal fold.
(5) Scrapbook kept by Gustavo Villoldo, captioned in Spanish. Measuring 10.5" x 14", it is titled on the first page, "Campaign Photographs in Bolivia Against Che Guevara of G. U. [Guerrilla Unit]" 52 photographs in fine condition, 3" x 2.5" to 7" x 5" in size, are affixed with picture corners on the next 29 pages. Some were taken by Villoldo, while others were given to him. Groups of photographs are captioned: "First Photographs That Positively Indicated Che's Presence in Bolivia," "First Photographs Guerrillas Captured Alive, Information Given by Them" "Revolutionary Captured October 2, 1967," "Photos from October 1 to 10, 1967 Operation Zone. Che Guevara's Fall & His Revolutionaries," "Pictures of Che October 8 & 9 - 1967 Operations Zone," "Che," "Vallegrande Oct. 11, 1967 Photographs of the Evacuation of Dead Soldiers in Campaign," "Photographs of Some False Documents," "Pictures on Che's Passport When He Left Argentina." Many of the photographs in this collection show Che and his fellow guerrillas postmortem.
Also included are two small cards, one engraved "Rene Barrientos Ortuño" (President of Bolivia), the other engraved "Alfredo Ovando Candia" (Commandant in Chief of Bolivia), affixed to a page captioned "Personal Cards Given to Me to be Used as a Last Resort in Case I Did Not Receive any Cooperation." There are 23 pages of Spanish newspaper clippings, October 1967, relating to Che Guevara's death.
This extraordinary historic collection includes a lock of Che Guevara's hair. Comparing the hair DNA with DNA from the body resting in the mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba, would finally put an end to the controversy surrounding the death of the man Time magazine included in its list of 20 "Heroes & Icons" in "The 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century," concluding, "the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience."
Interview with Gustavo Villoldo on the Capture and Death of Che Guevara:
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Estimate: $100,000 - up.
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| Auction Name: |
2007 October Grand Format Rare Books & Manuscripts Auction #675
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| Description: |
An historic rare book and manuscript auction that includes documents from the Henry E. Luhrs Collection and will feature some of the finest signatures from American Presidents, Declaration Signers, and Revolutionary War notables available in decades. In addition, we will be offering a premium selection of rare signed books & first editions, as well as Revolutionary War-era imprints, science fiction, and a fine group of books with fore-edge paintings.
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| Auction Type: |
Grand Format
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