Only 17 of the original 82 men on board the Granma, amongst them, Che and the Castrol brothers, Fidel and Raul were amongst the survivors. The invasion was such a disaster that news reports initially sent out the news that Fidel and Che had died.

 

Fidel Castro, Che and the others regroup and move towards the Sierra Maestra mountain range. The Sierra Maestra was the mountain range nears the coast where they landed and where Fidel planed to base his guerrilla movement. The Sierra Maestra is home to renegades, smugglers and the hardy peasant population.

 

Either were I or other farmers in the area aware that there was a revolutionary movement taking place. It took us by surprise. I knew nothing about politics.

 

16-year old Dariel Ramirez, nicknamed Benigno, works on his father's farm in the Sierra Maestra.

They arrived at  my home to ask for food and we gave them some. But I didn't help them because I sympathized with them. I helped them out of fear of oppression.

 

The strangers in the mountains are viewed with suspicion. Who are these bearded, smelly strangers with guns?  Making a noisome intrusion into their lives.

 

Fidel Castro tries to convince the peasants to side with him and his men. He decided to impress upon the peasants that he would bring about agrarian reform. And he did that by, basically, stealing a bunch of cows from a landowner's hand, liberating them and handing them over to the areas peasants. That was a very popular move.

 

Castro decides it's time to make the rebel presence felt and plans for an attack on an army outpost in the area. Che is heading for his first battle. On January 22nd 1957, the rebel staged an ambush on an army patrol. As the first shots rain out, Che is face to face with the enemy.

He shot him and then saw him drop. And he seemed to be gaging in his own reactions to see how he felt about it and he felt fine, he felt fine.

 

The small group is now faced with having to execute one of their own. The traitor, a man called Eutimio Guerra, one of their first collaborators, was discovered to be a spy. Fidel sentenced this man to death. No one ever said who had executed the Eutimio Guerra. But in Che's personal diary, it emerged that he had and he described it in vivid detail, taking the man's possessions from him, exchanging words from him, and then Che stepping up to his side, there was a thunderstorm breaking just then, and placing a revolver at his temple, and blowing his brains out, the 25 caliber revolver. Che inspected the entry and exit wound, very much the doctor, writing down that he had slept fine with what he had done. From that moment on, Che changed.

 

War is harsh and at a time when the enemy was intensifying its aggressiveness. One could not tolerate even the suspicion of treason. I don't know the final tally of the execution of victims of Che Guevara, but it was certainly dozens.