 Also removed when Guevara was captured were his 30 @,@ 000 @-@ word , hand @-@ written diary , a collection of his personal poetry , and a short story he had authored about a young Communist guerrilla who learns to overcome his fears . His diary documented events of the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia , with the first entry on November 7 , 1966 , shortly after his arrival at the farm in Ñancahuazú , and the last dated October 7 , 1967 , the day before his capture . The diary tells how the guerrillas were forced to begin operations prematurely because of discovery by the Bolivian Army , explains Guevara 's decision to divide the column into two units that were subsequently unable to re @-@ establish contact , and describes their overall unsuccessful venture . It also records the rift between Guevara and the Communist Party of Bolivia that resulted in Guevara having significantly fewer soldiers than originally expected , and shows that Guevara had a great deal of difficulty recruiting from the local populace , partly because the guerrilla group had learned Quechua , unaware that the local language was actually a Tupí – Guaraní language . As the campaign drew to an unexpected close , Guevara became increasingly ill . He suffered from ever @-@ worsening bouts of asthma , and most of his last offensives were carried out in an attempt to obtain medicine . The Bolivian diary was quickly and crudely translated by Ramparts magazine and circulated around the world . There are at least four additional diaries in existence — those of Israel Reyes Zayas ( Alias " Braulio " ) , Harry Villegas Tamayo ( " Pombo " ) , Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez ( " Rolando " ) and Dariel Alarcón Ramírez ( " Benigno " ) — each of which reveals additional aspects of the events . 
