As President Lucifer decrees the relaxing of relations with Cuba we need be careful what we embrace.
My feelings on this are mixed. American influence on the Cuban population may do more to free Cubans from their oppressive government than any earlier efforts. On the other hand, with our own president becoming a dictator, the police state conditions of Cuba may also infect America.
Che 1951
About Che
Che was the hero du jour when I was marching in anti-war protests in 1970 (yes, I was one of the hippies of that era). His posters were pasted on walls all over Brookline, Cambridge and Boston. The more politically involved among us (not me; I was just a dummy who was swept along) practically worshiped Che. Since then movies have been made glorifying his exploits, and some of Obama’s political campaign offices have had Che posters prominently displayed.
Then there’s the Che that Hollywood won’t talk about
The following article in Reason.com sums up the point I’m trying to make.
Reason.com: Hey Urban Outfitters: Che Guevara Was a Murderer and Your Poster Is Not Cool
by Katherine Mangu-Ward | Sep. 19, 2012
A friendly reminder from Human Rights Foundation founder Thor Halvorssen to your neighborhood vendor of overpriced rags and tatty studio apartment decor: Posters of Che Guevara are not cool, even when they are on sale for $9.99 (originally $19.99!):
Although Guevara’s image has appeared on countless items for consumption over the last few decades as a symbol of change for the better, Guevara’s actual record is that of a brutal tyrant who suppressed individual freedom in Cuba and murdered those who challenged his worldview.
That’s right, Urban Outfitters. By flacking posters of Che’s beardy face, you’re encouraging your customers to say: Hey, I like old records, three legged stools, and death!:
From 1959 to 1960, the new government carried out summary executions of at least 1,118 people by firing squad. Guevara himself presided over the notorious La Cabaña prison, where hundreds of the executions took place. For comparison’s sake, the Batista regime was responsible for 747 noncombatant deaths between 1952 and 1959. The Cuban revolution under the direction of Guevara also saw the rise of forced labor camps which gave way a few years later to full-scale concentration camps. These were filled with dissidents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and anyone else who had committed “crimes” against the new moral revolution.
Just to be clear, Halvorssen (and Reason) thinks people who want to ban Guevera’s smug mug are just as dumb as the wearers themselves. Because freedom of speech! And Urban Outfitters does describe the poster as a “conversation starter.” So, conversation started, I guess. Let’s see what the beret-clad Cuban has to say for himself:
In a speech in front of the United Nations in 1964, Guevara proudly admitted that “yes, we have executed, we are executing, we will continue to execute.” He boasted of murdering Eutimio Guerra, bragging in his diary how he “ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain.”
Plus, rocking some Che isn’t exactly an original way to “let out a rebel yell” as Nick Gillespie explains in Reason TV’s 2008 video, Killer Chic.
One final note
Che is dead, but before he could be stopped, he oversaw terrible cruelty and human rights abuses. Let’s not get too warm and fuzzy about our new (dictated) friendship with Castro’s police state.
