Page 2 of 2 THE ROVING EYE
Che lives By Pepe Escobar
Army of Bolivia, hordes of students, peasants, European tourists, 1960s
dreamers and assorted armchair revolutionaries at the apex of five-day World
Che Festival, drenched with music, movies, performance art, ritual pilgrimages
and even a soccer Che cup.
They are all at the heart of the government-sanctioned, 280km-long Che Guevara
trail in south-central Bolivia - the South American answer to the Ho Chi Minh
trail in Vietnam. One
wonders how Che - who plied these then dusty routes in the 1950s - would
contemplate South American integration via revolutionary tourism, complete with
bed and breakfast and trekking guides.
The Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, Rafael Dausa Cespedes, swears "this land is
blessed by the blood of Che". And by his lessons as well, one might add. There
are 2,180 doctors and 119 teachers from Cuba currently working in Bolivia - by
request of President Evo Morales. The ambassador stresses Cuba does not want
oil or mineral concessions from Bolivia - unlike other world powers. Even
Argentines are crossing the border to have their eye operations performed by
skilled Cuban doctors - for whom poetic justice is sweet to the ears: before
becoming a revolutionary wanderer, Che was a doctor himself.
Former soldier Mario Teran, the man who killed Che, lives in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, anonymous and dirt poor. He used to be blind because he was unable to
finance a cataract operation. Cuban doctors have operated on 600,000 people in
28 countries, free of charge. Including 110,000 Bolivians and Teran. The full
story of how he was cured by doctors sent by Fidel Castro was revealed to a
Bolivian newspaper over a year ago by Teran's son.
From Patagonia to Rio Bravo
Che's daughter, Aleida Guevara, sees Latin America today as being at a "special
moment" in history, recalling how her father emphasized the necessity of social
movements to gather force, and everyone to realize "we are a big Latin-American
family", a "big motherland from the Rio Bravo to Patagonia".
On December 9, 1964 Che pronounced in a prophetic speech at the United Nations
in New York about the liberation of Latin America. It was his last public
appearance before setting off for the Congo. Recently, an Aymara (member of an
Indian people living in the mountainous regions around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia
and Perualso) did New York. It was Bolivian President Evo Morales, during the
UN General Assembly. He played soccer, he talked to union workers about Abraham
Lincoln, dazzled Jon Stewart and the audience of The Daily Show with his
sincerity, integrity and very gentle charisma.
Just as ghastly racist Bolivian white elites call him "indio de mierda" (shitty
Indian), the Bush administration denies visas to mestizo (mixed Spanish/Indian)
members of Evo's cabinet. Che would immediately see what Evo provokes in white
Bolivians, exiled white Cubans, prejudiced Americans, or Peruvian first-class
writer and mediocre politician Mario Vargas Llosa: fear.
Evo is doing now what Che wanted to do 40 years ago - and it goes way beyond a
Marxist revolution. No wonder a portrait of Che hangs in Evo's presidential
office in La Paz. Evo is a truly indigenous son of the land. His massive
support base is not only Bolivian, but reaches across Latin America. He is
forcing the white elites still with a conquistador mentality to confront their
pitiful record in terms of exploiting, humiliating and plundering the riches of
South America's indigenous populations. And the white, exploitative elites are
of course terrified of facing a slow but inevitable redistribution of wealth.
Evo even set up a kind of decolonization government body to help people deal
with the effects of Western hyper-capitalism. If there is any "ism" in this
revolution, it is humanism. And the inspiration had to come from Che.
Che would immediately smile, smoking a pipe, at how Evo and Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela are demonized to kingdom come for nationalizing oil and gas and using
the extra cash for much-needed investment in health and education and to
accelerate the dreaded redistribution of wealth. Who profits? Instead of
Corporate America or Corporate Europe, it's the "indios de mierda" derided by
racists - the poor indigenous and mestizos in Venezuela and Bolivia.
And Ecuador is right on track as well. Che lives in Ecuador - where the party
of US-trained economist and President Rafael Correa recently grabbed the
majority seats of the Constituent Assembly that will write a new constitution
stressing national sovereignty and national assets in Ecuadorian, not foreign
corporate hands. Just as Bolivia had been reduced by former US-puppet,
comprador governments to the status of poorest country in South America,
Ecuador also lags; although it's the fifth largest oil exporter in Latin
America, its illiteracy rate is 65% and its external debt towards the IMF is
proportionally one of the highest.
Correa will not strike any FTA with Washington, will not be attached to the
US-designed Plan Colombia, and will definitely renegotiate the national debt.
What Che wanted 40 years ago is what most South American countries are striving
for now: improved, increasing regional integration, not US-imposed FTAs. Seven
South American countries are now joining the new Bank of the South, with its HQ
in Caracas. Bye bye IMF and its poverty-inducing "structural adjustments".
So what Che symbolizes now, mostly in Latin America but also in the troubled
Middle East, is the pure essence of all 1960s dreams of radical change. And
it's even more irresistible when sprinkled with a sense of style. The man was a
lover of poetry. A new book launched in Argentina, El Cuaderno Verde del Che
(Che's Green Book) is an anthology of 69 poems by, among others, Pablo Neruda,
Nicolas Guillen and Cesar Vallejo, copied by Che in the Bolivian jungle. The
book was found by three Bolivian officers and a CIA agent in Che's backpack, a
few hours before he was killed.
When you have brains, balls, good looks, true compassion and style your only
way is up - towards a worldwide moral and political high ground. For all the
young at heart in the world, Che lives - forever, and so does the example he
set. The fight for social justice is an eternal flame. Hasta la victoria,
siempre.
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