http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0873487664/
Che Guevara's Bolivarian Diary......
This book also includes accounts written by his surviving comrades.
The short version:
Che shows up in Bolivia and takes a bunch of urbanized, educated communists to a large farm in the boondocks. Well, a large group of citified strangers coming and going at strange hours attracts attention. Duh poleece gets called.
Che pulls his group back to forest camps and runs human convoys back and forth moving the enormous amount of crap that an organized group requires. He also tries to get a little field time and area recon in, but those efforts are largely useless.
Che loses the support of the indigenous Communist Party, because he won't let them lead their own revolution, and decides to carry on in the hopes of creating a spontaneous uprising.
He conducts a few small ambushes, and gets the Hammer called down on him. He becomes confined to a small geographical area, but still manages to remain more or less permanently lost, where the locals are terrified of him. The gov finds his caches, led by POW's and deserters. He gains no recruits, few supplies, and the noose narrows. His force gets split in two, people start to desert/get captured/killed, and the noose draws tighter.
He finally gets cornered in a little draw, becomes wounded, captured, and executed.
He chose his AO more or less at random, formed his group almost exclusively of strangers to the area (Cubans and urbanites), had poor maps and little recon, no significant urban political/logistical support, and had no comprehensive tactical plan, let alone specific operational or strategic visions.
He put a bunch of soft intellectuals (Cubans possibly excepted) in the middle of the jungle with no concrete supply lines, poor equipment, little planning and just hoped for the best.
Cost him his ass.
