Che Guevara Mausoleum - Return of Remains

Return of Remains

On October 17, 1997, Guevara's remains, and those of six comrades who died with him in Bolivia, arrived in a motorcade from Havana in small wooden caskets aboard trailers towed by green jeeps. As the remains were unloaded before a crowd of several hundred thousand people, a choir of schoolchildren sang Carlos Puebla's elegy to Guevara, "Hasta Siempre" (Until Forever) and then Fidel Castro declared the following:

Why did they think that by killing him, he would cease to exist as a fighter? Today he is in every place, wherever there is a just cause to defend. His unerasable mark is now in history and his luminous gaze of a prophet has become a symbol for all the poor of this world.

His speech was followed by a coordinated 21 cannon-shot salute in both Santa Clara and Havana, while air raid sirens were set off across the length of the island.

In addition to those of Che Guevara the remains of six other guerrillas who lost their lives in the 1966-1967 Bolivian Insurgency were also entombed in the mausoleum on October 17, 1997:

• Carlos Coello (Tuma)- Cuban, killed in action at Rio Piraí on June 26, 1967.
• Alberto Fernandez Montes de Oca (Pacho)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
• Orlando Pantoja Tamayo (Olo)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
• René Martínez Tamayo (Arturo)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
• Juan Pablo Navarro-Lévano Chang (El Chino)- Peruvian, captured and executed in La Higuera on October 9, 1967.
• Simeon Cuba Sarabia (Willy)- Bolivian, captured and executed in La Higuera on October 9, 1967.