Che the Idol

Contra gives a succint analysis of the idolized Che Guevara at bureaucrash.com.

"For a man who claimed to be liberating the peasants of Latin America, Che spent an awful lot of his time obliterating them. From very early on Che had learned the value of violence to maintain order and consolidate power. As part of a rebel detachment fighting the Batista regime in Cuba, Che had a child who had stolen some food immediately executed without trial. After the 1959 rebel victory in Cuba over the Batista regime, various foreign presses reported that over 600 Batista supporters were killed in mass executions. Che was later made the supreme prosecutor of the new state’s “cleaning commission” and sent hundreds to their deaths at La Cabana prison while Fidel Castro’s brother and Che comrade Raul Castro rounded up POWs and massacred them. Historian Jorge Castañeda charges that these executions “were carried out without respect for due process” The Cuban human rights activist Armando Valladares who was imprisoned at the La Cabana prison claims that Che took “personal interest” in the torture and execution of some political prisoners.

Che’s legacy is one of repression, terror, murder and destruction. One in which children lost their parents, patriots lost their country and tens of thousands lost their lives. Yet so many who claim to be supporters of peace seem are so enthralled with the cult of Che. So what makes the life and actions of Che so compelling?

Che is a hero to the statist left, not in spite of what he did, but because of it. Because he implemented the ultimate form of social collectivism. What Che represents is what the statists are really seeking: unyielding control over the destiny of others, the economic and political livelihoods of America’s citizens. The right and the ability to implement social justice as they see fit. This is what the image of Che represents and this is what the statists desire. Che was a man who got things done, who not only advocated but implemented. "

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