Honestly, He isn’t someone who is misunderstood by most of the people. He is still popular among most of the Latin American, African, and Asian countries. He is still one of the most popular leaders among various sects of people, but I think he is particularly misunderstood by Americans and Europeans. Let me try to address misunderstandings about him in this answer.
(Image: From Google)
First, a little background. Che lived with the only one motive and that is to root out the imperialism. Being a teenager, Che traveled throughout Latin America and understood how Imperialist countries like the US and European countries destroy ethnic people of Latin America.
When the time was right, he joined with forces of Castro to fight against American backed Cuban dictator Batista. Batista destroyed the whole country of Cuba. One good example of Batista’s regime is the literacy rate. It was under ten percent during his time. After Che, within three years it rose to 90%. Che, being a doctor and a good military commander led Castro’s forces in many battles and completely dismantled forces of American backed dictator Batista.
Che was given the position of ‘governer of Cuban bank’. The signature of Che was printed in every Cuban currency, but Che wrote this quote in his diary, ‘I can’t rest until every country in the world is free of imperialism. Even if somewhere in the world, people suffer, I will go out for them’
Che resigned from the post. Che hated the luxurious life and indeed he chooses this.
Che went to Congo to help indigenous people fight against imperialist forces. Che being an educated White man could have led a luxurious life as governer of Cuban bank, but he chooses the simple and painful life of a soldier. Che is holding a black baby in the same era, where Blacks were killed in the streets of the US. Che fought for the Black people, but his efforts went vain and he left Congo to join Bolivian forces to fight against imperialists. Sadly, that is where Che was caught and was shot to death.
Before being shot down, Che was caught and jailed in a village school. A teacher was assigned to provide him food. When the teacher went to provide food to Che, Che asked, ‘How are you able to teach students in such weak infrastructure’? Che smiled, ‘Don’t worry. If I live and if I win the war against imperialists, I will build a better school’.
Till the last day of his life, Che thought of the welfare of poor people and fought against the so-called privileged imperialists.
Journalist asked Che’s elder daughter, ‘Do you want to be like your dad’?. ‘Just not me, I want everyone in Cuba to be like my dad’, answered Che’s eldest daughter.
Nelson Mandela explained Che perfectly as follows
(Image: From Google)
Addressing propaganda
Che is a youth icon, even after 50 years of his death. This is something Western countries who supported Impearlism feared Che would achieve. Especially US and Britain media really try hard to project Che in a negative way, cause Che’s number one enemy is imperialists who squander native people and US and UK thrived on doing that.
I’ll address some of the propaganda Western media spread against Che.
1.)Che is a murderer: Batista goons killed thousands of innocent civilians during his regime and you know what? Batista was supported by the US, simply because he is a puppet of US. After the Cuban revolution, the Cuban government executed over a hundred people who supported the Batista regime. My question is what do you want Che to do with those who supported American backed Dictator Batista who killed thousands of innocent civilians? Sing lullaby to them? After every revolution, when suppressed rise to power, supporters of suppresser face justice. This happens in every revolution. After you oppress the whole country for a number of years, you cannot simply escape without any repercussions. Didn’t the US execute Nazis after WWII?
And I find it extremely ironic that US politicians call Che ‘a murderer’ for he signed death warrants of 100 to 150 supporters of Batista who literally destroyed lives of poor Cubans. Those executed were the aid/supporters of Batista and they faced justice for their actions. Let’s ask ourselves? Who selected George Bush, one who started a war that killed over 100,000 innocent civilians for the second term? Who invaded a country on the excuse of weapons of mass destruction and destroyed the whole country with that excuse and in the end, didn’t even found those weapons? Who invaded Vietnam just for the sake that they do not share the same political ideology? Who still operates Guantanamo Bay and illegally detains hundred of innocent men there? America isn’t even a member of the international court of justice, right?
2.)Che is racist: This is painfully funny propaganda. Let me put it his way. When Black people were killed in the streets of Washington by White police officers, Che left the prestigious job of governer of Cuban bank to fight for the freedom of Black people. When Blacks were treated as slaves in America, Che was fighting for them..
All the WESTERN COUNTRIES which had colonies in the past hates Che and spread propaganda against him and sadly many people misunderstood him because of that.
Except in the US, UK, and some other countries, Che is still seen as the personification of bravery and sacrifice. Despite the heavy propaganda, Che will forever be the symbol of liberty and self-sacrifice.
Source :
