Che in Pakistan

" Comrades, I am glad to tell you that Comrade Che Guevara was in Karachi yesterday. He was travelling on an Arab country's passport and came here as an Arab guest of mine. He sat on the sofa you are now sitting on. He went on a short 'sight-seeing' visit to Clifton beach, where he enjoyed a camel ride"

On June 12, 1959, Che left Cuba along with his bodyguard, Jose Argudin, and two government officials, Omar Fernandez and Francisco Garcia Valls. In Cairo, the delegation was joined by Salvador Vilaseca, a mathematician, while later when they arrived in India, Jose Pardo Llada, a journalist by profession, joined them. 

The itinerary included a host of countries, namely Yugoslavia, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Japan. Yes, he also came to Pakistan, a country he again visited in 1965 en route to Beijing.

The countries Che visited in the summer of 1959 were politically and economically important for Cuba. However, his visit to Pakistan which was subjected to a CIA sponsored military coup a few months back, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) bewildered even his biographer Jorge Castaneda. 

“It is difficult to understand how the third most important leader of the Cuban Revolution could spend three days visiting places like Colombo and Karachi while the new regime in Cuba struggled against both internal and external threats,” writes Jorge Castaneda. He further observes that the trip to these two countries was unremarkable; as he considers the trip carrying a ‘slightly quixotic tinge.’ 

The Viewpoint investigation in the last two months has led us nowhere either. At the Foreign Office, there is no record available, except a brief mention that Cuban delegation, led by Che, visited country’s capital, Karachi, in August 1959. The Viewpoint investigation was also not able to ascertain an exact date of the visit. It is hard to say if country’s foreign minister, Manzur Qadir, received the delegation or not, however, a photograph shows a meeting between Che and the then military ruler Gen. Ayub Khan. This photograph appeared in a book, titled “Pakistan Chronicle” published in April 2010, compiled by Aqeel Abass Jafri.

An official at the Foreign Office, when asked about the missing record about Che’s visit, offered no explanation. He told Viewpoint that Che’s visit was perhaps not an official visit, hence no record was available.

The Viewpoint has skimmed through files of three national dailies i.e. Pakistan Times, Dawn and Nawa-i-Waqt for   the month of August, 1959. However there is absolutely no information on the visit of the Cuban delegation. 

Ironically, even Pakistan’s left, a formidable force in Karachi and even the mainstream press at the time was unaware of the visit. When contacted, a former leader of left-wing National Students Federation (NSF), Dr Ehtesham told Viewpoint that he did not remember any such visit. He informed that the NSF was not aware of the visit even afterwards.  

Veteran left activist and Secretary General Pakistan Peace Coalition, B M Kutty, offered yet another explanation. Addressing Viewpoint queries in an e-mail, he wrote:

“I used to occasionally meet with Cuban Consul General in Karachi, Comrade Guerra along with my NAP party comrades such as Muhammad Hadi Naqvi and Amir Faisal Durrani (both no longer alive), I can’t remember Guerra's full name. He was very popular among progressive political activists in the city. It was in the second half of 1960’s. In one such meeting with  Guerra in his office located on today's Sharae Faisal, somewhere close to  what in those days used to be called Lal Kothi, Guerra revealed to us something very sensational, which roughly was as follows:

" Comrades, I am glad to tell you that Comrade Che Guevara was in Karachi yesterday. He was travelling on an Arab country's passport and came here as an Arab guest of mine. He sat on the sofa you are now sitting on. He went on a short 'sight-seeing' visit to Clifton beach, where he enjoyed a camel ride. Last night he left for China." It was a stunning revelation. If I remember correctly, Che was no longer in the Cuban Government at that time.

By the way, Guerra was very popular with the progressive political groups and activists. He even used to visit NAP office and meet NAP leaders and workers. His staff consisted of himself and his wife and none else! And yet, his was one of the most active diplomatic offices in Karachi. He used to say that his wife was his secretary, housekeeper and car mechanic all in one.  

Eventually, I remember Guerra was quietly asked to leave the country obviously for his "undesirable" activities. Some years later, during ZA Bhutto's government, he returned to Islamabad as Cuban Ambassador, but only for a short time and went back to Havana to take up some very important assignment there”.  

In January 1965, Havana decided to try its hand as a mediator, in a bid to reconcile Moscow and Beijing. The mission comprised the Secretary of Organization of the Cuban party, Emilio Aragones, Osmany Cienfuegos and Che who was in Algeria or perhaps France when this decision was taken.   Emilio and Osmany hooked up with Che in Paris. To avoid a stopover in Moscow, lest they should offend Mao, they left for Beijing via Karachi. This stopover in Karachi was as inconsequential and went as unnoticed in the press as the first. Could it be that Che travelled second time on an Arab country’s passport as Mr. B M Kutty has revealed? 

Adnan Farooq did his Masters in Political Science and has worked with daily The Nation, Lahore and daily Jang, Lahore. He has also volunteered for Milieudefensie, Amsterdam. Friends of the earth, Europe, on environmental issues. He has been working with ON FILE, an Amsterdam-based publication run by journalists from all around the world. He studied Conflict Resolution at University of Amsterdam and is living in Paris. He is the editor.