Harry Villegas Tamayo, “Pombo,” died in Havana. He was one of the five survivors of Che's guerrillas in Bolivia, and a man of his utmost confidence.

Born in Yara in 1940, Villegas joined the guerrilla forces of the July 26 Movement at a young age, integrating the guerrilla column led by Commander Che Guevara, whom  he accompanied throughout the revolutionary war.

After the triumph of the Revolution on 1 January, Villegas continued to accompany Che as head of his escort, and in 1965 he accompanied him, as part of the Cuban detachment supporting the guerrilla following Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.

In 1966 he was selected by Che, who assigned him the name "Pombo", as a member of the chosen detachment of men who would accompany him in the creation of a guerrilla focus in Bolivia. After the ambush of Quebrada del Yuro, where Che Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner, before being killed by order of the CIA, Pombo managed to regroup the other 4 surviving guerrillas, and lead them to Chile, from where they returned clandestinely to Cuba in 1968.

True to his revolutionary career and the confidence Che always had in him, Pombo rejoined the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and participated in the Cuban internationalist mission in Angola, reaching the rank of Brigadier General, and the title of Hero of The Republic of Cuba.

Pombo was, in recent years, Vice President of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, and devoted a substantial part of his time to studying and disseminating the political and military thinking of Commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara.