Harry Villegas

{{Short description|Cuban communist guerilla (1940–2019)}} {{Multiple issues| {{refimprove|date=December 2019}} {{No footnotes|date=September 2011}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox military person |name=Harry Villegas |birth_date={{Birth date|1940|5|10|df=y}} |death_date={{Death date and age|2019|12|29|1940|5|10|df=y}} |image= |caption= |birth_place= Yara, Cuba |death_place=Havana, Cuba |burial_place= |allegiance=Communist Party of Cuba<br>Cuba's National Assembly<br>Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution |branch= |service_years= |rank= |unit= |awards= |other_work= }} '''Harry Villegas''' (10 May 1940<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLqfcyzEcx0C&q=Harry+Villegas+in+Yara%2C+Cuba%2C+May+10%2C+1940&pg=PA205|title=Ché Guevara: A Biography|isbn=9780812813487|last1=James|first1=Daniel|year=1970|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> – 29 December 2019)<ref>{{Cite web|title=General cubano que lutou ao lado de Che Guevara morre aos 79 anos|url=https://noticias.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/efe/2019/12/29/general-cubano-que-lutou-ao-lado-de-che-guevara-morre-aos-79-anos.htm|access-date=30 December 2021|website=noticias.uol.com.br|language=pt-br}}</ref> was a Cuban communist guerrilla. He was born in Yara and was a descendant of African slaves.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/harry-villegas-right-hand-man-and-bodyguard-to-che-guevara-dies-at-81/2020/01/06/8e15ca48-2d67-11ea-bcb3-ac6482c4a92f_story.html|title=Harry Villegas, right-hand man and bodyguard to Che Guevara, dies at 81|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=6 January 2020|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> He fought alongside Che Guevara in battles from the Sierra Maestra to the Bolivian insurgency.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://themilitant.com/2020/01/04/harry-villegas-pombo-fought-at-side-of-che-guevara/|title=Harry Villegas (Pombo): Fought at Side of Che Guevara|date=3 January 2020|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> From 1977 to 1979, and again from 1981 to 1988, Villegas was part of the leadership of Cuba's volunteer military mission in Angola, fighting alongside Angolan and Namibian forces against aggression by South Africa's apartheid regime. Villegas was a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1997 to 2011, a deputy of Cuba's National Assembly, and executive vice president of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution.

Villegas was also a published writer. He died aged 79 in Havana.

==Books in English== *''Pombo: A Man of Che's guerrilla. With Che Guevara in Bolivia, 1966-68'' Pathfinder Press (1997). *''At the Side of Che Guevara: Interviews With Harry Villegas'' Pathfinder Press (1997). *''Cuba and Angola The War for Freedom'' Pathfinder Press (2017).

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Commonscat|Harry Villegas}} *[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/che/bolivia-guerrillas.htm Members of Che Guevara's Guerrilla Movement in Bolivia] – by the ''Latin American Studies Organization''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villegas, Harry}} Category:1940 births Category:2019 deaths Category:People from Yara, Cuba Category:Cuban people of African descent Category:Cuban communists Category:Cuban male writers Category:Che Guevara Category:Cuban military personnel of the Angolan Civil War