Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider (November 19, 1937 – August 31, 1967) was an Argentine-born East German revolutionary known for her involvement in feminism, leftist politics, and liberation movements.
Bunke was recruited for Bolivian Campaign, Che Guevara's guerrilla expedition in Bolivia aimed at sparking revolution across Latin America. Using the alias Tania, she infiltrated Bolivian high society and developed ties with Bolivian President René Barrientos.
In 1966, her cover was blown, leading her to join Guevara's armed guerrilla campaign in Bolivia. During this time, she was responsible for the food and monitoring radio communications. Bunke was killed in 1967 during an ambush by Bolivian Army Rangers while attempting to escape with a leg injury and fever.
Early life
Born in November 1937 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tamara Bunke was the daughter of Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider.[1][2] Nadia Bider Bunke, born in 1912, was a Russian communist who hailed from a Jewish family within the Russian Empire. Her father, Erich Bunke, relocated to Berlin at the age of 18 to pursue studies in architecture. Both Nadia and Erich took part in left-wing politics; however due to Nazi persecution, they were forced to flee to Argentina in 1935.[3] Erich faced persecution for his involvement with the Communist Party of Germany, while Nadia, being of Jewish descent, also became a target of persecution.[4]
Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider secured positions as teachers upon their arrival in Argentina.[5] Shortly thereafter, they became members of the Communist Party of Argentina, ensuring that Tamara and her brother Olaf would both grow up in a Marxist-Leninist political atmosphere. Their family home in Buenos Aires was often used for meetings, helping communist refugees, hiding publications and occasionally stashing weapons.[6] In 1952, after the end of World War II, the family came back to the newly created East Germany, specifically Eisenhüttenstadt.[7]
Bunke commenced her studies in philosophy[9] or political science,[6] depending on the source, at Humboldt University in East Berlin, where she distinguished herself due to her linguistic skills; she was fluent in English, Spanish, French and German.[6][9] Bunke soon began working as a translator of several Latin American leaders during their visits to East Germany, particularly those associated with the FGY's International Relations Department.[10]
After the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro dispatched emissaries to various socialist countries to garner support. In this capacity, in 1960, Che Guevara was sent to Leipzig, East Germany, as part of a Cuban trade delegation. Bunke was assigned to accompany him as his interpreter.[1][9] Subsequently, in 1961, she received an invitation from Alicia Alonso to travel to Cuba.[11][12]
Tamara worked for the Asociación de Jóvenes Rebeldes, later known as the Union of Young Communists [es]. She assisted in organizing an international student union conference in Havana. Tamara also joined the People's Defense Militia and collaborated with various Latin American individuals who sought solidarity with their struggles, including Nicaraguan revolutionary Carlos Fonseca. She actively participated in the insurgency in Nicaragua, establishing connections with members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.[14]
Dámaso Tabares was entrusted with the task of selecting a compañera for Operation Fantasma in Bolivia. Three candidates were considered, and Tamara was eventually chosen for training to participate in Che Guevara's guerrilla expedition. Guevara's goal was to spark a continent-wide revolutionary uprising into neighboring Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, and Chile.[9][13]
In preparation, Guevara assigned Bunke to be trained by Dariel Alarcón Ramírez [es].[9] It was during this period that she took the name "Tania" as her nom de guerre in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisian who also used this alias.[13] Between 1963 and 1964, she underwent training, culminating in a period of instruction in Prague, where she received training from the StB. It was during this training that she formed a romantic relationship with Dámaso Tabares.[15]
Bolivian insurgency
During her years working for the Cuban government (1961–1967), Bunke utilized various disguises. These included a Czech woman Marta Iriarte, Haydée González and Vittoria Pancini, an Italian citizen travelling in Europe.[9]
In October 1964, Tamara Bunke, using the alias Laura Gutiérrez Bauer, arrived in Bolivia as an undercover agent in Che Guevara's final revolutionary campaign. Her mission was to infiltrate Bolivia’s political and military elite to gather intelligence on the country's power structures.[9] Posing as a right-wing Argentine folklore expert, Bunke quickly gained access to high society in La Paz.[13][16] She befriended high-ranking officials, including General Alfredo Ovando Candía, head of the Bolivian Army, and ultimately won the admiration of President René Barrientos, even accompanying him on a holiday to Peru.[9]
To solidify her cover, Bunke pursued her interest in Bolivian folk music, resulting in one of the most comprehensive collections of Bolivian music. She also married a young Bolivian man in a marriage of convenience, securing citizenship and blending further into Bolivian society. Through her connections, Bunke gathered valuable intelligence on the Bolivian military and reported back to Guevara and Cuban intelligence.[9][13]
In late 1966, Bunke's role shifted as preparations began for the arrival of Guevara’s guerrilla forces in Bolivia. She was tasked with organizing safe houses that could also serve as storage sites for supplies and ammunition. However, her frequent cross-border travels to secure resources and accommodations for the incoming fighters raised suspicions and gradually put her cover at risk.[17]
Originally, Bunke was meant to focus solely on intelligence gathering. But with limited personnel on the ground, she found herself actively involved in receiving the guerrillas upon their arrival and transporting them to the Ñancahuazú camp. Guevara himself, under a false identity, arrived at the camp in late 1966, and by March 23, 1967, the guerrilla group, known as the Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia, had officially launched its operations. Days later, Guevara handed Bunke an M-1 rifle, formally enlisting her in the guerrilla column led by Cuban commander Juan Vitalio Acuña Núñez. In one of her journeys to the Ñancahuazú base, Bunke left her jeep parked at a safe house, where a captured Bolivian communist later revealed its location to authorities. Inside the jeep, her address book was discovered, blowing her cover and forcing her to remain with Guevara’s forces.[13][17][18]
As the campaign wore on, Bunke faced harsh conditions in the rugged Bolivian terrain. She began suffering from a high fever, a leg injury, and painful effects from a Chigoe flea infestation.[9][13] Seeing her deteriorating health, Guevara decided to attempt an evacuation of 16 ailing guerrilla fighters from the mountains in hopes they could recover.[9][13]
Death
"Will my name one day be forgotten and nothing of me remain on the Earth?"
Following Tania's rise to prominence in Bolivia she became too easily identifiable, so Che initiated arrangements for her departure. On April 17, a detachment led by Juan Vitalio Acuña Núñez departed from the main guerrilla force due to injuries and illness, which included Tania. Guided by Honorato Rojas, a Bolivian peasant, the group was led to the location where Bolivian soldiers were strategically positioned and concealed.[19][20]
At 5:20 pm on August 31, 1967, the lead guerrilla column was ambushed while crossing the Río Grande at Vado del Yeso.[9] Tania was in the water, when she was shot in the arm and lung and killed along with eight of the insurgents.[9][21] Her body was then carried downstream and only recovered by the Bolivian Army seven days later on September 6. Her corpse was supposedly transferred by helicopter to Vallegrande. Days later when her corpse was presented to Barrientos, it was decided that it would be buried in an unmarked grave with the rest of the guerrillas. However, the local campesino women said she be given a proper Christian burial.[22]
On September 7, when her death was announced over the radio, Guevara, still struggling through the jungles close by, refused to believe the news; suspecting it was army propaganda to demoralize him. Later, when Fidel Castro learned of her demise, he declared "Tania the guerrilla" a hero of the Cuban Revolution.[9]
After the research of biographer Jon Lee Anderson led to the discovery of Che Guevara's remains in 1997, Bunke's remains were also tracked down to an unmarked grave in a small pit on the periphery of the Vallegrande army base on October 13, 1998. They were transferred to Cuba and were interred in the Che Guevara Mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, alongside those of Guevara himself and several other guerrillas killed during the Bolivian insurgency.[23][24]
Controversies
Since her death, Bunke has been the subject of claims suggesting she was a triple agent for the Soviet KGB, East German Stasi, and Cuban intelligence, and that she had a romantic relationship with Che Guevara in Bolivia, possibly even carrying his child at the time of her death.[9] However, in 2017, Dr. Abraham Baptista, who conducted autopsies on both Guevara and Bunke, refuted this.[13][25] Additionally, in 2003, Bunke’s mother, Nadia, successfully had the book Tania, the Woman Che Guevara Loved by José A. Friedl removed from sale in Germany, as German courts deemed the allegations defamatory. The book repeated a debunked rumor that Bunke and Guevara had an affair with Guevara while training in Prague, though records show they were never there at the same time.[9][13]
Popular culture
Following Bunke's death, the media swiftly sought to reduce her to merely Che Guevara's romantic partner, thus diminishing her contributions to the Bolivian Campaign.[26] Certain intellectuals associated her as a femme fatale, whose death was due to her extramarital affair with Che.[13]Soviet-Ukrainian astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva named a minor planet discovered in 1974, 2283 Bunke, in her honour.[27] Bunke has been depicted in numerous films, songs, and theatrical productions, most notably, portrayed by Franka Potente in the film Che.[28][29][30][31] In fiction literature and games, Tamara's presence is equally notable.[32][33][34] Additionally, during Patty Hearst's involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, she adopted the alias "Tania."[35]
Henderson, James D., Linda R. (1978). Ten notable women of Latin America. pp. 213–240. OCLC641752939.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Muskus, Zetty; Vásquez, Jorge (2004). Los personajes en las canciones de Alí Primera. Colección de literatura. Trujillo] : [Caracas?] : [Trujillo: Fondo Editorial Arturo Cardozo ; Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes, Viceministerio de Cultura, Consejo Nacional de Cultura ; Gobierno Bolivariano del Edo. Trujillo. ISBN978-980-376-077-9.
