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Simeon Cuba Sarabia
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Simeon Cuba Sarabia (15 January 1935 - 9 October 1967), also known as Willy, was a member of the Nancahuazu guerrilla column led by Che Guevara in Bolivia. Born in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia, he became a leader among tin miners in Huanuni and served as the secretary of organization and secretary of militias of the local mine workers' union. He also carried out various social service activities for the benefit of the miners' families. Cuba Sarabia joined the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB) but resigned from it in 1965 to become a member of the Bolivian Marxist-Leninist Party which favored armed struggle. When he urged that group to put its principles into practice, he was expelled from it along with Moises Guevara. It was Moises Guevara who brought him into Che Guevara's Nancahuazu guerrilla group in March 1967.
The Bolivian Armed Forces refused to give information about what had been done with Cuba Sarabia's remains. Almost thirty years after his death, on 28 June 1997, a Cuban forensic team discovered his skeleton in the same burial pit situated on the auxiliary runway of the Vallegrande airport that contained the remains of Che Guevara and five other guerrillas. Willy's remains were transferred to Cuba along with those of Guevara and the five other combatants and, on 17 October 1997, their caskets were laid to rest with full military honors in the Che Guevara Mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara.
Related websites
Imagenes finales de el Che
On the Other Side of the Barricades
Photo of a mural in Huanuni depicting Willy and Che Guevara
More photos of Huanuni
A day in the life of a mine worker in Huanuni
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Simeon Cuba Sarabia
