Santiago de Chile - Vibrant testimonies were part of the launch of the book "''En la senda del Che, biografía de Elmo Catalán" (Along Che´s Path, a Biography of Elmo Catalán), by Cuban journalist José Bodes Gómez, during Santiago´s International Book Fair (FILSA).

In a crowded room at the Cultural Center Estacion Mapocho, the venue of the fair, which has a wide foreign participation, the book by the publishing house Ocean Sur had a warm welcome.

Bodes Gómez, who has been a correspondent for Prensa Latina in Chile several times, carried out a thorough research to write the book, whose first edition was published in Cuba in 2008.

During the launch, Elmo Catalán Jr read a posthumous letter addressed to his father in gratitude for all the efforts made to reveal in Chile the biography of the journalist, writer and socialist revolutionary.

A special moment was the intervention of General Harry Villegas (Pombo) about the time he fought in Che Guevara´s guerrilla and met Elmo Catalán Avilés in Cuba, killed in Bolivia.

Villegas told stories of his experience in the guerrilla in Bolivia, his time in Chile after Che´s death and the meeting with Catalán Avilés in Cuba, who he described as a true revolutionary that fought for a more just society.

Meanwhile, Chile´s Culture Vice-Minister Lilia Concha said that the Bodes Gómez´s book repairs a historical injustice, "a tribute that, in my opinion, has taken too long".

"Elmo has colored with heroism glorious pages of our country. His life is proof of the identity ties of a revolutionary with Latin America and the Caribbean", he said.

Cuban and Salvadorian ambassadors to Chile, the Consul General of Bolivia and other members of the diplomatic corps were present at the ceremony.