[NYTr] The Scientists Who Helped Bring Che's Body Home
 
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:01:21 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
CubaNow - Jul 16, 2007
http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=3&item=2977&cont=show.php

Ten Years after the Remains of Ernesto Che Guevara were Brought to Cuba

By Al Games

Cubanow.- The story of the scientific team that brought the remains of
Argentinean-Cuban guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara and his
companions to Cuba was published on the Cuban Granma newspaper.

The identification of Ernesto Guevarabs remains was reported to the
Cuban people July 12, 1997 in a note, which read that the outstanding
event was the result of the search and exhumation of seven bodies found
in a common grave in the Bolivian locality of Vallegrande.

That day in the evening, the remains were brought to Cuba in a plane
that arrived at the San Antonio de los BaC1os airdrome, and a solemn
ceremony was held in the site, in the presence of Fidel Castro Ruz.

The successful finding was not only due to the work of seven Cuba
experts who found the common grave on June 28, 1997, but also due to
the effort of more than 100 scientists, who went to Bolivia in order to
support the work.

Since Che Guevara and his comrades were killed in combat in 1967, a
large amount of information began to be collected about the possible
burial sites, but in November 1995, a retired Bolivian general named
Mario Vargas Salina (already departed) told reporters from the US and
Bolivia that CheB4s remains were beneath the track of the Vallegrande
airdrome. The information triggered the Cuban investigation.

Former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada told the press that
if what Vargas Salina had said was true, the remains of Che would be
returned to his family, and such a statement was taken into a
presidential decree.

Then, Cuba set up a commission presided over by First Vice President
Raul Castro Ruz and an executive staff led the search. The profiles of
the killed combatants were made in detail and completed with
information gathered during consultations with family members and
institutions.

Information sources for the investigation, both in Cuba and in Bolivia,
included CheB4s journal in Bolivia, a document valuable enough due to
the accurate information it offered, as well as the journals written by
other guerrilla fighters.

More than 1,000 people were interviewed, and 300 testimonies were
useful. As to the remains of Che, there were many versions; then
experts drew up maps depicting 88 possible burial sites.

The search program included, among other aspects, historic research
based on versions and the socio-psychological characterization of the
interviewees; basic studies; geo-physical research; archaeological
excavations, exhumation and identification.

The exhumation of CheB4s remains began at 2 pm as requested by the
Bolivian Government Minister, who wanted to be present. It lasted two
hours. The identification process was very rigorous at the mortuary of
the Japanese hospital in the city of Santa Cruz. The whole process
lasted nearly one week and it included several reliable resources that
left no room to doubts: the marked prominence of his upper orbital
arches or his forehead protuberance, and it was the only skeleton
without hands which were cut, so that Argentinean experts were able to
identify him. However the most important factor was his denture mold.

The mold was made during the camouflaging process to protect him during
his trip from Cuba to Bolivia in the mid 1960B4s, along with a dental
radiography from the 1950B4s which was made in Mexico. Such factors were
decisive, reads the article published in the Granma newspaper. 
       
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