Exposing the Real Che Guevara

Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him by Humberto Fontova, Sentinel, 2007. 

Summary

The author debunks the myth of Che Guevara as a revolutionary hero who liberated the poor. Fontova proves that Guevara was instead a cowardly psychopath, who had nothing going for himself except being handsome and photogenic. 

Che the Symbol

Che is famous because Fidel was happy to make Che out to be a hero, after Che was dead and no longer a threat to Fidel’s power. Che became a symbol of fighting for the poor people of the Third World. The reputations of both Fidel and Che are due mainly to the excellence of the public relations work of their supporters, rather that to any objective achievements, whether they be humanitarian or military. Many positive biographies of Che have been written. These hagiographers have based their work mainly on propaganda given to them by the Cuban government. Fidel wrote some of this propaganda himself, glorifying the man he had sent to his death in Bolivia. 

Che the Communist

Che’s mother Celia was an Argentine Marxist. Che approved of Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest in 1956 to crush the Hungarian rebellion. Che’s two sons were trained at the KGB academy in Moscow.

Che the Doctor?

Che has the reputation for being a medical doctor, but although he studied at the University of Buenos Aires, there is no proof that he ever received a degree in medicine.

Che the Guerrilla

Che was a poor tactician when it came to guerrilla warfare. Che was no good in a fight where his opponent had a weapon and was not bound and gagged.  

Che the Executioner

In January 1957, Che executed a peasant guerrilla Eutimio Guerra by shooting him in the head. Che wrote to his father about the incident, saying that at that moment he learned that he really liked killing. This act of initiative is what brought Che to Fidel’s attention. Someone who knew both of them said that Fidel was motivated by a lust for power, while Che was motivated by an enjoyment of killing people. Besides killing people himself, he also enjoyed watching prisoners being executed from his office. In fact, he had a window installed in his office at La Cabaña Fortress Prison just so he could watch the executions. Che had about two thousand people executed in 1959, almost all of them innocent of any crime. He killed not just those who fought for the previous dictator, Batista, but also many who fought against Batista, but who belonged to organizations that were rivals of Fidel’s gang.

Che the Vampire

Before executing people, Che extracted blood from his victims, and sold it abroad.

Che the Art Lover

After Fidel, Raul and Che took over Cuba, Che stole and moved into a luxurious seaside estate in Tarara that had a yacht harbor and a swimming pool. Che later filled it with expensive works of art stolen from the Cuban people.  

Che the Businessman

When Che was Minister of Industries, he confiscated two billion dollars worth of American companies, and ruined the sugar, tobacco, cattle and nickel industries. His policies lead to rampant inflation in the early years after the 1959 revolution. 

Che the Labor Union Leader

In the years before the revolution, Lieutenant José Castaño Quevedo had discovered Communist infiltration into Cuba’s labor unions. Che had Quevedo executed on March 7, 1959. In October 1997, at a symposium on Che at UCLA, the son of Quevedo stood up and denounced the lauding of Che. 

Che the Gun Grabber

When Che and the Castro brothers took control of Cuba in 1959, they confiscate all the guns of the Cuban people.

Che the Book Burner

On January 24, 1959, Che Guevara burned in the street 3000 books of the library of Salvador Diaz-Verson, president of Cuba’s Anti-Communist League. The library contained lots of information on the Communists Party members in Cuba. 

The Death of Che

Che Guevara went to Bolivia supposedly to liberate its peasants. But the Bolivian peasants had already been given land in the early 1950s, under President Paz Estenssoro. Very few peasants, if any, joined Che’s rebel group. In fact, far more peasants helped the Bolivian military hunt him down, because they resented this foreign interloper. Castro had withdrawn financial and military support from Che before he was captured. Che surrendered, even though he had a full clip of ammunition in his pistol. He told his captors not to shoot him, because he was worth more to them alive than dead. Fontova based his account of Che’s capture on reports of the Bolivian military officers who captured him.