ELN Insurgency in Bolivia 1966-1967

Bolivia became a prime target of Cuban-supported subversion when Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine-born revolutionary and a major in the Cuban army of Fidel Castro, and his tiny National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional -- ELN) launched a guerrilla campaign. On November 7, 1966, he and some 15 seasoned followers clandestinely arrived in Bolivia and set up a headquarters at Nancahuazu in a wild, unsettled region of the country. Unexpected troubles arose; their controller double-crossed them and absconded with a quarter of a million dollars, their food supplies ran low, and the several warring factions of the Bolivian Communist Party failed to give the expected support to Guevara's insurgency.

The Bolivian army learned of the guerrillas' presence early in 1967 and, assuming there was a large force of Cubans, sent several thousand troops to patrol the region in March; small skirmishes ensued in which the guerrillas usually triumphed. Despite its increased United States training, Bolivia's army still consisted mostly of untrained Indian conscripts and had fewer than 2,000 troops ready for combat. Therefore, while the army kept the 40-man guerrilla group contained in a southwestern area of the country, an 800-man Ranger force began training in counterinsurgency methods. With counterinsurgency instructors from the United States Southern Command (Southcom) headquarters in Panama, the army established a Ranger School in Santa Cruz Department.

Meanwhile, on April 26, 1967, a French and an Argentine courier, who were trying to leave Bolivia to tell the world of Guevara's existence and intentions, were captured by the army, which used them to stir up the Bolivian people against the "foreign invaders."

By late July 1967, three well-trained and well-equipped Bolivian Ranger battalions were ready for action. Supported by these special troops, units of the Eighth Division closed in on Guevara's demoralized, ill-equipped, and poorly supplied band, camped on the Morocos River, and seized irreplaceable equipment. Nine guerrillas were killed in an ambush at a river ford. By the fall of 1967, Guevara was retreating through the jungles with only 16 men against 1,500 soldiers in pursuit. A special army detachment discovered Guevara and his small band on the banks of the Yuro River on October 8, 1967; some were killed outright. Guevara was wounded and captured; he was taken to nearby La Higuera, where he was shot the next morning. Thus ended the ill-fated, Cuban-sponsored insurgency.

References

Military History, 1464-5; Dictionary of Wars, 63-4; Bolivia - A Country Study.

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