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Che Guevara was a Hero
On October 9, 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara – a man who Nelson Mandela called “an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom” – was shot repeatedly to death by Mario Teran, a half-drunken sergeant in the Bolivian army after refusing to answer interrogation questions. Shot nine times, Che was executed without a trial. Yet, his last words were of the liberation: “I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution...Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!”
In The Motorcycle Diaries, readers see Che transition from a youthful medical student to a leader whose eyes are opened to the rampant poverty, alienation, and plight of the common people -- whether mestizo or indigena.
As the historian Arthur Schlesinger reported, “the corruption of the government, the brutality of the police, the regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice was an open invitation to revolution.”
Che witnessed this horrific abuse of power throughout Cuba and seized the opportunity to improve the lives of the common man – to free him of the oppression, exhortation, and foreign imperialism imposed on him by the ruthless Batista regime.
In the documentary, The True Story of Che Guevara, we hear accounts of Batista’s men mercilessly killing a revolutionary’s fiancee and in Che’s diaries we hear of a poor married couple being imprisoned and driven to poverty for having held communist sympathies. Moreover, Batista’s troops tortured and publicly executed thousands of men, women, and even children to force its citizens into submission.
Che’s experiences led him to believe that the socioeconomic inequalities throughout the region were the result of warped capitalism and imperialism, and he acted on his moral standards to enact societal change.
Unlike Hitler, Stalin, or Mao who systematically starved or committed atrocious crimes against their people, Che sought to establish an egalitarian society where groups could coalesce and work together for the common goal of economic and political independence.
Critics like Glenn Beck histrionically demonize Che as a villainous character in Latin America, but no one calls George Washington a murderer in his fight for freedom. Being a revolutionary means involvement in warfare and conflict. There isn't an easy way to fight imperialism, and Che had the determination and backbone enough to challenge both the colossus of the North and the USSR to make Cuba an independent nation.
After the Cuban Revolution succeeded with the support of the peasants and middle class, Che made many reforms, including redistributing land amongst the peasants and desegregating public facilities. Even after being politically ostracized by Castro, Che stayed true to his goal of creating a free Latin America. In his Bolivian guerrilla operation, he medically treated wounded Bolivian soldiers before releasing them.
Che had an honest intention to help the poor and the oppressed and free Latin America from foreign dominance. If in his travels, Che was shaped into a rough revolutionary, he continually acted in the manner he thought best for the greater good of his people.
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