Cuba pays final homage to Che Guevara

Published Saturday, October 18, 1997, in the Miami Herald

Cuba pays final homage to Che Guevara

SANTA CLARA, Cuba -- (AP) -- Cannons thundered, air raid sirens wailed and reverent children sang to the memory of Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara on Friday, when the remains of the man who roamed the world spreading revolt came to their final resting place.

President Fidel Castro led the Cuban people in paying homage to
the legendary guerrilla leader.

``Why did they think that by killing him, he would cease to exist as a fighter?'' Castro asked, speaking atop the vast mausoleum built for Guevara's newly returned remains. ``Today he is in every place, wherever there is a just cause to defend.

``He has placed his indelible mark on history and his luminous gaze of a prophet has become a symbol for all the poor of this world,'' Castro said.

The ceremony capped a weeklong commemoration of Guevara, 30 years after the man who helped Castro take power in Cuba died in an abortive effort to export revolution to Bolivia.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans turned out to see Guevara's flag-draped wooden coffin make its final journey from Havana to the ornate shrine in Santa Clara, a city of 220,000 that is the site of Guevara's greatest military victory.

``Che is waging and winning more battles than ever,'' Castro declared, standing in front of a huge bronze statue of the revolutionary.

Before ranks of rifle-carrying soldiers, a choir of schoolchildren sang Carlos Puebla's elegy to Guevara, Hasta Siempre (Until Forever).

Castro appealed to Guevara's memory for help in Cuba's struggle to revive its economy and ease the pressure of U.S. economic sanctions.

``Thank you for coming to reinforce us in this difficult battle, which we are waging to save the ideas, to save the revolution, the country and the conquests of socialism,'' Castro said.

Guevara's remains, and those of six comrades who died with him in Bolivia, arrived in small wooden caskets aboard trailers towed by green Russian jeeps, and rested before the Cuban leader as he spoke.

The guerrillas' recently excavated bones were sent home to Cuba earlier this year.