No, I am saying that it is somewhat ridiculous to accuse Guevara of not creating freedom or social justice in Latin America when at the time both concepts were very elusive in almost all other Latin American countries as well (and in may ways they remain elusive to this day…).

To answer your question: You should respect Cuban sentiments towards Guevara simply because Cubans have just as much right as you to decide who they like or dislike. Doesn’t mean you have to agree…

And to call the Cuban people as a whole “cowards” because they did not overthrow Castro in more than 4 decades is frankly quite arrogant, unbecoming and silly.

Auch Richard Herzinger kontrastiert den populären Heldenmythos mit dem historischen Ernesto Guevara, dem todessüchtigen Stalinisten:
In Guevaras Forderung, die Revolution müsse selbst um den Preis von Millionen Opfern in einem Atomk…

Be a non-conformist because everybody else is!

Aber der totalitäre Che ist nur eine Facette. Es gibt auch noch den Apokalyptiker, der einem Bin Ladin alle Ehre gemacht hätte.

*Klatsch, klatsch, klatsch*
(Bitte nicht mit Applaus verwechseln, das ist das Geräusch der flachen Hand mit der ich mir gerade vor die Stirn schlage.)

Whatever Che Guevara may have been guilty of, for sereval million Cubans he remains a hero, as much today as 50 years ago when the revolution took over from a discredited, corrupt and oppressive dictatorship that even the US did not want to support any longer. The article claims that he created neither freedom nor social justice – maybe, but where in Latin America did you find freedom and social justice in the 50s and 60s? The history of the “democratic” countries on the continent are by and large an endless series of military coups, brutal dictatorships, civil wars, abject poverty and social unrest and inequality. And Cuba is so much worse because of Che Guevara? Worse than what happened at ESMA or in Chilean prisons in the 70s and 80s? I don’t condone any of the violence and oppression brought on by socialist revolutionaries but the backlash from right wing dictatorships and their lackeys was just as bad if not worse.

Nobody has to love Che Guevara. But if the Cuban population at large considers him a hero for what he did for them in the 50s in a fight that was not his own, then who are you to say it shouldn’t be so?

Paul Berman does not like the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries”. Fine, but what does that have to do with the concept of freedom and social justice and the history of Latin America? And by the way, a guayabera is not a black tie but the traditional Cuban white, short sleeved shirt worn untucked. If Paul is waxing about Cuban dissidents and their poetry he should at least get the translation right.