Finding the human side of revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

Finding the human side of revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia
Kenichi Yoshida, The Yomiuri Shimbun | 12.01.2014


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Villagers are seen in La Higuera, Bolivia, where Che Guevara was killed in September 1967.

Charlotte McDonald-Gibson / For The Vancouver Sun)[/font]

LA HIGUERA, Bolivia — A seven-hour drive from Santa Cruz — a city in eastern Bolivia — on a dusty mountain road took me to La Higuera, a village 2,000 metres above sea level.

About a dozen shanties built along the road were the homes of its 80 or so inhabitants.

It was here 47 years ago that Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a guerrilla revolutionary committed to the goal of liberating Latin America, was captured by the government army and executed.

After strolling through a symphony of birdsong to the center of the village, I found a bust of Guevara on a pedestal. His strong eyes seemed to show determination.

Guevara was born to a wealthy family in Argentina. After meeting former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Mexico, he went to Cuba and helped lead the guerrilla war there.

On the heels of the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he was appointed the president of the National Bank and the minister of industry. He left Cuba in 1965 for Congo and sneaked into Bolivia after leaving Congo.

More:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/Finding+human+side+revolutionary+Guevara+Bolivia/10369598/story.html

(Juanita Castro, quoted in the article, lives in South Florida, part of the right-wing Cuban "exile" community.)

[hack89]

1. Great tee shirt icon. Lousy military commander. nt

[Marksman_91]

2. I find it hilariously ironic how "leftists" wear his merchandise

Totally what the Che would want people to do, I'm sure...

[Xipe Totec]

3. He was, above all, a doctor and a humanitarian. nt

[hack89]

4. As well as a ruthless organizer of firing squads

He had a well earned reputation for brutality.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Yes, our soldiers don't do that. They shower our enemies with love, affection, and napalm. nt

[hack89]

6. Are they also humanitarians?

Just wondering.

[Xipe Totec]

7. ...

[hack89]

8. And you doubt Che was not capable of similar acts?

Violent revolution is not for the faint of heart. They are bloody affairs.

[Xipe Totec]

9. And your point? Is there a point? Other than throwing dirt? nt

[hack89]

10. I just pointed out he was a lousy general

You said he was a humanitarian - I was just throwing the bull shit flag. That's all.

[Xipe Totec]

11. ...

Get back to me if you understand

&list=LL02eaKdWuInbcaMCdDBliUQ&index=194

[hack89]

12. Another popular tee shirt theme? nt

[Xipe Totec]

13. You failed. Just so you know.

MI-SE-RA-BLY.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Wow! What a voice, too! Amazing. I had to get the translation to post below your video:

The wolf Motives

Ruben Dario

http://thedeepsolitude.blogspot.com/2012/06/los-motivos-del-lobo-wolf-motives.html

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
I will never forget this poem. Thank you, so very much.

[Xipe Totec]

21. Thank you

Perhaps you will see some of the Wolf of Gubia in Che. At heart he was gentle but he was forged and tempered by the anvil and hammer of injustice, war, and revolution.

[Judi Lynn]

14. US-supported F.Batista had death squads, like "Masferrer's Tigers" which prowled the streets,

taking young people away, torturing them, dismembering them, sometimes, and throwing them out in the road, or hanging them from light poles, sometimes from trees, sometimes putting them in burlap bags, dosing them with gasoline, and burning them alive, or, in some cases, forcing them to dig their own graves before shooting them as they knelt by the grave they just dug for themselves.

I would imagine merely getting shot would have seemed like a dream vacation to these people.

Who gave you the insights about what Che did to people, the Cuban "exile" community? We know how truthful they are. They fled to Miami to escape retribution for what they had done to Cubans. Some of them were in the death squads, some flew planes and bombed Cubans, and some informed on Cubans who got tortured and murdered because of it.

I suppose you imagine the US Revolutionaries didn't have a day of reckoning for those who served the British military, and assisted them in torturing, killing, hunting the Revolutionary people. Nah, they wouldn't do that, would they?

They don't harm people now, either, do they?

[hack89]

15. Just pointing out Che was a violent man

Not deserving of being called a humanitarian. That is all.

[Judi Lynn]

16. He worked with lepers before going to Cuba. Everyone knows that.

It's doubtful anyone has mentioned he shot any of them.

Incidently, he worked with them for free because he wanted to help them. Right-wingers would sneer at him for not deciding to go into medicine in such a way he could make big stacks of money. Imagine, helping without trying to make a profit. He must have been nuts. Maybe he was a "treehugger," or a "bleeding heart liberal" or whatever during that time.

[Marksman_91]

17. Doesn't change the fact that he murdered innocent people

A friend of mine's grandfather was murdered by the Che. So does a few good acts redeem quite a few atrocities?

[Judi Lynn]

18. Right. So many "exile" Miami spawn have wild stories to tell. They all have them.

Why don't you lean in and start questioning your "exile" friend for the details, find out how much he knows, how he knows it, etc.

"Senator" Marco Rubio used to tell everyone he came to Florida to escape Castro too, until it was made public information that his own parents "fled" to Miami well BEFORE the revolution.

Some of those tall tales are downright hilarious, too. Whoppers invented by fact-deprived, slow-witted people who don't realize their stories tell others a great deal about them, and their desperation to get attention, or "fit in" with the crowd of other windy "exile" descendants.

The longer you stay in the US, the more you will grasp the fact most sane, intelligent people don't really identify with the right-wing approach to life.

[metalbot]

23. Nobody wears Batista t-shirts and pretends he was a humanitarian <eom>

[Mika]

20. I bet some useful s aints will post about Che's murderous ways.

Surely they will. Well, I hate to break it to them, as they say... if you're going to make an omelette you've got to break some eggs.
We should be able to discuss this as easily as a discussion of George Washington's murderous ways.
Cuba's 1959 Revolution was a relatively low violence revolution. The US backed and trained elite forces defending Batista were blood-soaked ruthless killers who ran the numerous death squads that took the lives of thousands of union organizers, teachers, professors, journalists, and liberals of all stripe - as well as targeting their families with murder and all manner of grotesque assaults. Heinous crimes. It should be noted that most of Cuba's regular army had no allegiance to Batista, so they turned tail and ran when confronted or joined up with the July 26 movement - sympathetic to their cause.
Anyone here who has done some research into the revolutionary war activities of George Washington, his armies, his cohorts and supporters would understand that revolution is a very dirty business - on the tip of the spear of revolution there's no angels on either side. In light of that, Cuba's revolution was about as blood free as any.
I'm sure that Che, like the Castro brothers, wouldn't mind taking the blame, being defamed, being slandered. As long as the credit for the Revolution goes to the people of Cuba... where it belongs.

Thanks for posting this.

[Zorro]

22. Sounds like Che was quite the humanitarian murderer