The Motorcycle Diaries
DiscoZombie
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
in Discussions
<div class="IPBDescription">who was Che Guevara?</div> just watched The Motorcycle Diaries... excellent movie, not really political at all, though it did make me think about who Che Guevara was...
I always see people wearing his face on shirts and stuff, but I'm not much of a historian, and I never knew what he stood for... he and Castro apparently took the power from Cuba's former imperialist regime... we're trained here in the US to think of Castro as a really evil man, but it seems like these guys did good by saving the poor from exploitation... I wonder how the majority of Cubans really feel about Castro today...
anyway, anyone have anything to say on the subject of the movie or latin american revolutionaries? =P
I always see people wearing his face on shirts and stuff, but I'm not much of a historian, and I never knew what he stood for... he and Castro apparently took the power from Cuba's former imperialist regime... we're trained here in the US to think of Castro as a really evil man, but it seems like these guys did good by saving the poor from exploitation... I wonder how the majority of Cubans really feel about Castro today...
anyway, anyone have anything to say on the subject of the movie or latin american revolutionaries? =P
Comments
Of course, things weren't quite that simple unfortunatly. Guevara was quite ademantly socialist, but Castro wanted democracy and an end to US businesses owning every slice of Cuban infrastructure. However when Castro took over cuba and Batista fled, he nationalised all the infrastructure that US companies had taken over. The US immediatly slapped the embargo on Cuba that's still there today. Later, they would try to invade Cuba (Bay of Pigs) and, though it's never officially been confirmed, assassinate Castro.
Castro now was in a difficult situation. 60 years of virtual rule from Washington ensured that the vast majority of machinery and factories in Cuba used US parts. He needed some source of income, as Cuba's largest trading partner, the US, was now off limits. In the bi-polar world of the Cold War, Castro's only real option was the Soviet bloc. This of course was to Guevara's liking.
Thus in an ironic twist Cuba was turned Communist because of the US. Had the US instead welcomed Castro and understood that perhaps the people of Cuba were slightly angry at being ruled by a dictator whilst their economy was taken over by the US, then they could have had a democratic nation on their doorstep as opposed to a communist state that ended up allied with the USSR, and shortly afterwards caused the Cuban Missile Crisis. I could point out as well that Ho Chi Min wanted to immpliment an almost exact copy of the US constitution in Vietnam, but the US turned it down. You'd think they'd learn.
what can you say, he did a lot of things both good and bad.
He helped overthrow a government and whether or not it was of benifit to the people depends on your political views. He also presided over 500 "trials" of many members of the previous goverments. Which usualy ended up with their executions.
He wrote the famous book "Guerra de guerrillas" (Guerrilla warfare) which has become a classic read for dozens of "revolutionary" terrorist groups such as the
FARC Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
or the
Shining Path in Peru.
Revolutionaries fighting to instill their own government, at the expense of anyone who gets in their way and funding themselves with drug money and by "taxing" the villages that are unfortunate enough to fall under their control area.
To get an idea of how big FARC is go here
<a href='http://www.farcep.org/' target='_blank'>http://www.farcep.org/</a>
They have their own site lol. They have their own trained standing army of over 18,000 soldiers. They recieve hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in the cocain trade as well as from other places.
Columbia at one point in an effort to control the group ceded a portion of land the size of Switzerland to them (which came to be known as FARCland) and signed a cease fire truce type deal. FARC responded later on by hijacking a plane. The deal was off and Columbian and US forces (which were used only to target FARC controlled drug circles) took back the area.
The Shining Path often kill and raid the villages of the very same people they are trying to "free". blalbalba Its been going on for decades and still does, you just dont really hear about it.
As there is much conflict that goes unreported in the daily news.
Ex. All the spying and special forces recon missions between North and South Korea (remember these 2 nations are still technically at war with each other)
So make up your own mind. How far and to what extremes will a revolutionary figure go to acomplish its goals.
If you want to judge Che on his ideals of steadfastly sticking to his ideals (even though he would later disagree with Castro on somethings) and the willingness to die for what you believe in, sure i guess thats ok, but while his smiling face is idolized as a figure of bravery and revolution on coffee mugs and t shirts, do not forget the darker side of things and happenings that went along with him or were the results of his own actions.
All in the name of revolution. Do note that much of his "idolization" didnt even come about until after his death when it was used as a pro
communism/reovultion(ary) propaganda tool.
One of his quotes.
"If a revolution is true, you will either triumph or die."
hmm kinda like being a Frontiersman Marine
Gee... Che wasn't exactly what one would call a hero, history has shown him to be a pretty violent character.
so I guess his ideals can be respected; not so much his methods...
<b>Edit:</b> It's kinda weird how this popped up, I just added a new line to my sig. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Gimme a second, and it'll be <span style='color:white'>***cleaned,***</span> as well.