Orlando Pantoja Tamayo. A revolutionary youth man who actively participated in the insurrectionary struggle for the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. A member of the Ché guerrilla in Bolivia, he died in the Quebrada del Yuro.
He was born on October 2, 1934 in the town of Maffo, Jiguaní, Oriente. At the age of 11, he began to work to pay for his classes and finish 6th grade.
Olo becomes a vehement admirer of Eduardo Chibás and he joins the youth section of the Orthodox Party and occupies the propaganda secretariat of the municipal direction of Jiguaní. After the events of the Moncada, he joined the 26 de Julio Movement, which acts in Contramaestre and he is in charge of Action and Sabotage.
On October 21, 1957 he joins the forces commanded by Fidel Castro Ruz and shortly after he passes to La Plata where he meets Commander Ernesto Che Guevara. For his merits Che gives him the rank of Captain and puts him in charge of an inexperienced troop that has to advance through Camaguey and participate in the seizure of Sancti Spiritus and Jatibonico towns. So he did.
After the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959 in Cuba, the then captain of the Rebel Army, Orlando Pantoja Tamayo “Olo”, developed an intense activity as part of the leadership of the Rebel Army, which gained the trust to carry out dissimilar responsibilities.
He immediately became executive assistant to Commander Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, carrying out an intense activity as an officer of the Cuban Intelligence Directorate (G-2). This was the genesis of the future Cuban hero.
On March 5, 1963, the Department of Surveillance of Ports and Coasts was created, direct antecedent of the Border Troop Detachments of the Republic of Cuba. Captain Orlando Pantoja Tamayo was appointed to the front, and from that moment on he stood out in the protection of the national territory against enemy infiltration and pirate attacks.
By personal request, on December 19, 1966, he joined arrives at the guerrilla camp of “Ché” in the mountainous area of Ñacahuazú, Bolivia Thus he begins the last and most glorious stage of his revolutionary life.
On November 19, 1966, Captain Orlando Pantoja Tamayo arrives at the guerrilla camp of “Ché” in the mountainous area of Ñacahuazú, Bolivia, being assigned to the detachment of the center as chief of information and chief of the camp.
On October 8, before the imminence of a clash against the Bolivian Army that had surrounded the positions, Che organizes lines of fire in the Quebrada del Yuro to protect the retreat and escape from the siege and take out the sick they were bringing.
At one thirty in the afternoon, the combat begins. The Bolivian soldiers are stopped by the guerrillas. As usual, “Olo” Pantoja is in the fire line. He dies that combat.
With the unhappy death in El Yuro Creek, the legend of Captain Orlando Pantoja Tamayo’s fidelity to justice, freedom and especially to the leader and fellow fighter Ernesto “Ché” Guevara does not end.
It seems that by a beautiful coincidence, history kept “Ché” and “Olo” Pantoja united in eternity: after 30 years of intense search for the corpses of the guerrillas killed or dead in the Yuro ravine and in the La Higuera little school, on July 3, 1997, the remains of the Heroic Guerrilla and Pantoja Tamayo were found in a common grave and identified, along with 5 other guerrilla fighters.
On October 17, 1997, the remains of the guerrillas were placed in the Memorial of the city of Santa Clara. Thus, the remains of that young hero who knew how to march against death for the triumph of life rest on Cuban soil.