Should Che Guevara be idolized?
Che Guevara, the famous Marxist revolutionary, is idolized by many. His name has become a worldwide merchandized brand, and his portrait is now the symbol of rebellion, worn by many people around the world. The famous Cuban revolutionary has become a pop culture icon, considered a hero by people that have no clue who he truly was. Guevara was in fact a ruthless murderer that unsuccessfully tried to impose his own form of ideal state and was in fact ignorant of the most basic economic principles.
First of all, Che Guevara was Fidel Castro’s main executioner after the Cuban revolution. Within the first three months of Castro’s regime, defectors claim he issued from 500 to 600 death warrants to political prisoners. His murder rate can be compare to the Nazis during their pre-war period. Luis Ortega, a Cuban journalist who personally knew Che, writes that the revolutionary sent 1 897 men to be murdered at a firing squad. Other authors and journalists mention that during the first few years of the regime, he was responsible for ”several thousand” of executions. It is unclear to many historians the exact number of murders that took place on his behalf. He tortured, burnt and killed children, thousands of men and woman without trials.
In addition of being a ruthless murderer, he expressed his thirst for power and violence by trying to impose a form of shariah on the city of Sancti Spiritus. Guevara issued prohibition, monitored relations between couples and ordered his men to rob the rich classes and the banks. He justified the robbing as being necessary for the poor masses. His shariah, nevertheless, did not work and was a complete failure because he did not have the requirements needed for an action like that to be successful.
Most important, Che Guevara described himself as a Marxist revolutionary and humanist. He was in fact not at all what he said he was because he did not follow what Marx wrote. Karl Marx stated ten steps to communism which had to be followed to the letter for it to be achieved. Not only did he not follow the steps, he also was unaware about the main economic principles including inflation. He printed bills signed ”Che” and predicted in 1961 that Cuba would rapidly surpass the per capita income of the United States by 1980. Alvaro Vargas Llosa mentions in his essay “Che Guevara: The Killing Machine” that by 1997, Cubans were being rationed more than in 1961.
Perhaps because he opposed capitalism, or because he was the leader of a rebellion, people tend to view this figure as a hero. He was a killing machine, had no idea what being a Marxist really was and was an incompetent fool. This pop figure is a masked figure of someone infamous.