May 16

Just as we started out, I came down with intense abdominal pain, with vomiting and diarrhea. I got it under control with Demerol, but lost consciousness and had to be carried in a hammock. When I awoke I felt much better, but I was covered in shit like a newborn baby. I borrowed a pair of pants, but without water, the stench could be smelled for a league away.

May 30 

We received news that the jeep was spluttering for lack of water. We found it about three kilometres on; after we urinated in it and added a canteen of water, we made it to the farthest point we had reached...

June 3

At 17:00 we saw an army truck, the same one as yesterday, with two soldiers wrapped in blanket in the back of the vehicle. I did not have the heart to shoot them, and my brain did not react fast enough to figure out how to detain them, so we let them drive by. 

August 8

We walked for something like an hour, but to me it seemed like two because of the exhaustion of the little mare; at one point, I slashed her neck, opening a deep wound [...] I am a complete wreck and the incident with the little mare shows that at times I am beginning to lose control [...] This is one of those moments when great decisions have to be made; this type of struggle gives us the opportunity to become revolutionaries, the highest form of the human species, and it also allows us to emerge fully as men;  

September 8

A Budapest daily is criticizing Che Guevara, a pathetic and apparently irresponsible figure, and applauds the Marxist stand of the Chilean Party for taking a pragmatic position when faced with reality. How I would like to have power, for nothing more than to expose cowards and lackeys of all stripes and to rub their snouts in their own filth.

September 10

I swam across the river with the mule, but lost my shoes in the process so now I have only sandals, which does not amuse me at all. [...] I forgot to mark an event: Today, I took a bath, after more than six months. This constitutes a record that several others are already approaching.

September 12

Barrientos's offer apparently caused quite a stir; in any case, one crazy journalist thinks that US $4,200 is too little money, considering what a menace I am.

~ Communiqués

In publicly announcing the first battle of the war, we are establishing what will be our norm: revolutionary truth. Our actions have demonstrated the integrity of our words. We regret the shedding of innocent blood by those who died; but peace cannot be built with mortars and machine guns, as those clowns in braided uniforms would have us believe. They try to portray us as common murderers. But there never has been, and there will not be, a single peasant who has any cause to complain of our treatment or our manners of obtaining supplies, except those who, as traitors to their class, served as guides or informers.

The disparity in losses is understandable if one considers that it is we who have chosen the time and place of every combat. Moreover, the Bolivian Army is sending off green soldiers, practically children, to be slaughtered. Meanwhile, back in La Paz, the chiefs invent strategies and pound their chest in fake grief at demagogic funeral services, hiding the fact that they bear the guilt for the bloodshed in Bolivia.
They are now removing their masks and starting to call in US "advisers", just as occured in the beginning of war in Vietnam, which has drained the blood from that heroic people and put world peace in jeopardy. We do not know how many "advisers" will be sent against us (although we will know how to confront them), but we warn the people of the dangers of this action by the military sell-outs.
We appeal to all young [Bolivian Army] recruits with the following instructions: when the battle begins, throw your weapons to the ground and put your hands on your head. Remain still in spite of the gunfire, and never go to the front of the column when marching near combat zones. Make the officers who are inciting the conflict take those extremely dangerous positions. We will always shoot to kill the front line, and, as much as it hurts to see the blood of innocent recruits flow, this is one of the imperious requirements of war. 

We want it to be understood that the ELN of Bolivia is the only responsible party for the armed struggle, which its people lead, and which will not stop short until final victory is achieved. We will know how to punish all the crimes that have been committed in this war, independently of the reprisal measures our military command judges opportune to counter acts of vandalism by the repressive forces.

We can simply state that any citizen who accepts our minimum program, the liberation of Bolivia, is accepted into the revolutionary ranks with equal rights and duties as the Bolivian combatants, who naturally constitute the vast majority of our movement. Every person who engages in armed struggle for the liberty of our homeland deserves, and will receive, the honorable title of Bolivian, independently of where they might have been born. That is how we interpret genuine revolutionary internationalism.