Why do people idolize che guevara

You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. Skip to Main Content Skip to Search. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services.

Dow Jones. To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership. Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Please click confirm to resume now. There, Che acquitted himself again horribly as a military commander. And again in Bolivia. The battle for which Che is famous, decimating Batista at Santa Clara, was widely overblown. The U. After the revolution, Che took a cue from Stalin and had, by his own count, 2, of his officers executed.

Che kidnapped them in the night, wives and children screaming in terror at the arrival of the death squads. Che taped their mouths to prevent them from speaking. Che buried the corpses in secret graves. He supported rapid industrialization at any cost. Industrial waste was dumped into rivers upstream of farming areas. By , his policies had failed and Cuba reverted to an economy dominated by sugar.

When his factory workers appealed for higher wages, he refused to bargain with them. Admittedly, his economic rationale was reasonable, but decidedly classical: more money in the economy, without a corresponding increase in manufacturing output, would lead to inflation, making everybody poorer.

Che accused the U. Che knew two things: that his country was reliant on the U. His insistence on ideals over the health of thousands was what killed Cubans. But you can attribute all his failures to inexperience.

This is what our soldiers must become Aside from the T-shirt manufacturers, there is Hollywood. The legend was given a boost by the film The Motorcycle Diaries, co-produced by Robert Redford, that explored the formation of his egalitarian idealism during his travels through Latin America before going to Cuba. The film enraged some critics, including the writer Anthony Daniels, who noted: "It is as if someone were to make a film about Adolf Hitler by portraying him as a vegetarian who loved animals and was against unemployment.

This would be true, but An entirely less rose-tinted take on Guevara and Castro can be seen in the newly released independent film The Lost City, directed by the actor Andy Garcia who fled Cuba with is family aged five , starring Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray. Yes, if only because the revolution still lives with Castro, who turns 80 in August, remaining in charge.

More compellingly, leftist governments are in power today in nearly every South American nation. True disciples of Guevara have a new, living figure to idolise: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Chavez, who frequently cites Castro's Cuba as his inspiration, shares and preaches the dream first articulated by Guevara of a continent united in shared values of socialist egalitarianism. He is the new mouthpiece of the anti-American fervour first felt by Guevara during his sojourn in Guatemala.

With the recent election in Bolivia of Evo Morales, a like-minded populist who rattled nerves in the West by partially nationalising his country's energy sector, Chavez has been further energised in his quest. The horizons on this world view may be closing in, however. Chavez is a divisive force in Latin America, with other leaders in the region increasingly shunning his affections.

On Sunday, his chosen favourite in Peru's presidential elections, Ollanta Humala, suffered defeat at the hands of the newly moderate Alan Garcia. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies.