Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Continued from the Hourly History book on Che Guevara… At the UN, as the head of the Cuban delegation, an angry Che ripped into the US for interference throughout Latin America. In 1965, during a visit to Algiers, he tore into the USSR saying they were practically imperialists, looting third world countries for resources. Castro was furious. The two soon parted ways.   Che seemed to vanish. Until he surfaced in Tanzania (Africa). From there, he went to Congo, always trying to spread his revolutionary ideals. But he had no success. So he decided to return to Latin America, to Bolivia.   The Bolivian communists weren’t willing to cede leadership to Che. Che was now stranded in Bolivia, with barely any supporters. Yet, his small guerrilla outfit managed to surround and defeat a Bolivian army unit of 35 soldiers. Che could have executed those soldiers. Instead, he let them go. A fatal mistake.   For the commander of that army unit, it was very embarrassing. And s...

Che Guevara. His image is the “countercultural symbol of rebellion” world-over: That’s all I knew about him, until I read the Hourly History book on him. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in 1928 to a privileged Argentine family. As a pre-medical student, he went on his motorcycle for a 5,000 mile ride across South America. He was deeply impacted by a leper colony in Peru. Outcasts from society, they had forged a colony away from everyone else: “It was no longer the sickness of the individual body he sought to cure; his main interest was curing the sickness of society.”   In 1954, Che was drawn like a magnet to Guatemala when their elected president started redistributing land from the rich to the poor. Corporations whose lands were seized complained to the US, whose ears perked up at signs of communist leanings. They backed a military coup to overthrow the president. Che’s view of the US was now of a “domineering, imperialist power, seeking to destroy Latin America’s democ...