[Humberto Fontova is the author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Visit www.hfontova.com . ]

During recent interviews of Obama campaign workers on Houston's Fox TV station, the offices of two Texas Obama campaign volunteers (including a precinct captain and head of the "Houston Obama Leadership Team") were found prominently decorated with Che Guevara images, against the backdrop of Cuban flags. The MSM kept mum, but the conservative blogoshere spread the story. Intrepid blogger Henry Gomez (Babalu Blog), uncovered 15 different pages of Che Guevara well-wishers on the official Obama campaign site.

Two days after the Fox TV airing the Obama campaign finally went on record and in a terse statement described the Houston office posters as "inappropriate."

"The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind!" raved Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1961. "Against those hyenas there is no option but extermination. We will bring the war to the imperialist enemies' very home, to his places of work and recreation. The imperialist enemy must feel like a hunted animal wherever he moves. Thus we'll destroy him! We must keep our hatred against them (the U.S.) alive and fan it to paroxysms!"

Compared to Che Guevara, Ahmadinejad sounds like the Dalai Lama.

On November 17, 1962, J Edgar Hoover's FBI discovered that Che Guevara's bombast had substance. They infiltrated and cracked a plot by Cuban agents that targeted Macy's, Gimbel's, Bloomindales and Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The holocaust was set to go off the following week, the day after Thanksgiving. Che Guevara was the head of Cuba's "Foreign Liberation Department" at the time.

A little perspective: for their March 2004 Madrid subway blasts, all 10 of them, that killed and maimed almost 2000 people, al-Qaida used a grand total of 100 kilos of TNT. Castro and Che's agents planned to set off five times that explosive power in the some of the biggest department stores on earth, all packed to suffocation and pulsing with holiday cheer on the year's biggest shopping day.

A month earlier (during what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis) Fidel Castro and Che Guevara had salivated over the prospect of a much more satisfying holocaust. "Say hello to my little friends!" they dreamt of yelling at the Yankee “hyenas,” right before the mushroom clouds. But for the prudence of the Butcher of Budapest (Nikita Khrushchev) they might have pulled it off. Despite the diligent work of Camelot court scribes and their ever-eager acolytes in the MSM, Publishing and Hollywood, most serious analysts conclude that Fidel and Che's genocidal fantasy was a much bigger factor in Khrushchev's decision to yank the missiles from Cuba than Kennedy's utterly bogus bluster, threats and "blockade."

"The solutions to the world's problems lie behind the Iron Curtain," stressed Ernesto “Che" Guevara who often signed his correspondence with the moniker "Stalin II". "If the nuclear missiles had remained we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City," he boasted. "The victory of socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims."

But don't misinterpret Che Guevara’s bluster with actual bravery. His stock in trade was the mass-murder of defenseless men and boys—bound and gagged is how he demanded his victims. On Oct. 8 1967, upon finally encountering armed and determined enemies, Che quickly dropped his fully-loaded weapons and whimpered: "Don't Shoot! I'm Che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!"

Che Guevara's regime also shattered - through executions, jailings, mass larceny and exile - virtually every family on the island of Cuba. Many opponents of the Cuban regime qualify as the longest-suffering political prisoners in modern history, having suffered prison camps, forced labor and torture chambers for a period three times as long in Che Guevara's Gulag as Alexander Solzhenytzin suffered in Stalin's Gulag. But don’t bother looking for any History Channel, NPR, or 20/20 interviews with these heroes. They were victims’ of the Left’s premier poster boys.

The regime Che Guevara co-founded stole the savings and property of 6.4 million citizens, made refugees of 20 per cent of the population from a nation formerly deluged with immigrants and whose citizens had achieved a higher standard of living than those residing in half of Europe.

Under Che Guevara's rule "Change" indeed came to Cuba.

Imagine, say, Huckabee campaign volunteers in Possum Gulch Arkansas, discovered with their offices displaying posters of David Duke -- who despite his looney ravings has killed no one, and who, as far as I know, has never advocated the nuclear extermination of the U.S. population. Do you think there might be a media hullabaloo, with the attendant extortion rackets by "Civil Rights leaders"? Do you think that a campaign spokersperson's lame exculpation of these Duke posters as "inappropriate" would suffice? We all know better. The orgy of self-flagellation, groveling, hoop-jumping, and whimpering (not that they would have gotten it) demanded from any Republican candidate would have made Dom Imus' recent antics look like Ollie North in front of the Iran-Contra hearings.

The Duke comparison may be apt in more than one way. What might Ernesto “Che” Guevara have thought of Obama’s campaign and his campaign workers (volunteers and otherwise)? His writings and utterings give a strong clue:

"The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving";
"South American peasants are simply little animals";
"Mexicans are a rabble of illiterate Indians."
Unfortunately, it looks as though Obama supporters think more of Che than he would about them.

Joseph Mutik - 2/22/2008

I am an Israeli American, educated in eastern Europe, Israel and making lots of money in the U.S.A.. The making money education I got it on both sides of the pond, but that's practical education. In the money making business I see many Indians and some Chinese but very few Russians (unless you consider the Russian mafia). Your "educated" fellows produced Russia where drinking vodka is the main palliative. Don't kid yourself, U.S.A. uses immigrants for a long time and they integrate in the American society. China is a communist country only in name the economy is capitalist there.
I guess the marxist message is now: "recyclers of communist garbage from all over the world, unite!" The garbage bin of history is all yours.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/22/2008

but you lack intellectual capacities to perceive what an averagely "educated" Soviet immigrant would easily grasp, which just shows that US educational system (which "bright" reperesentative you're of) is in shambles.
Such ignoramuses like you're is the reason why our superior country (USA)
borrows technical and scientific guys
from all over the former and present Communist countries like crazy.

From "KGB boy" to S.O.B.

Joseph Mutik - 2/21/2008

The Chinese communists were smart enough to embrace capitalist ways and I hope they'll leave the communist garbage in the bin. The "educated" soviets weren't as smart as the Chinese. Now you try to "educate" Americans by choosing and picking about what communism is. I can't let you do it KGB boy!

Arnold Shcherban - 2/21/2008

You show no principals, Mr. Mutik.
Din't you previously declared that you are "done" with me?

But since my "kind" comment on your "run for cover" apparently revived your desire to snatch the red fascist's money, I inclined to explain
myself. I put timely limits on the periods of dreadful Soviet propaganda, because, as every other phenomenon in the world, it evolved too (despite the "dreaded" US mainstream propaganda on that issue) along, by the way, with the overall living standards there and everything else. Thus, on the same reason that one should not equate early American capitalism with the modern one, one should not put all Soviet eggs in one time basket, so speak.
Are you ready to rock n' roll, now?

Jon Marte - 2/21/2008

Do the ends justify the means?

Joseph Mutik - 2/21/2008

Did I indicate any time period in my massages cocerning communist propaganda? So why do you artificially limit me by excluding periods from the soviet dreaded propaganda?

Arnold Shcherban - 2/20/2008

Ha, Ha, Ha!

What did I predict?
When facing a real challenge you like all of your ideological cowardly ilk, run for cover as a beaten puppy.
Who is the fascist now, you ignorant
anti-communist fanatic?

Joseph Mutik - 2/20/2008

I am through with you. The only question is what are you doing in the U.S.A., the dreaded imperialist country, why don't you move to Cuba or back to USSR? In the Cuban gulag you will learn Spanish, very nice language!

Arnold Shcherban - 2/20/2008

And you walk and quack like ideological dogmatic that is deaf and blind to realities and facts.
Prove to me (and everyone else who's interested) that Soviet authorities (not in Stalin times) or Soviet Central Statistical Bureau officially
stated that the USSR had one of the highest standards of living in the world (as you stated before) to show that you're not full of it.
Prove to us that, as you stated before, the figures and facts I provided has been taken exclusively from Cuban governmental sources to show that you're not what I said you're.
I publicly challenge you (in American style, not as red fascist) to bet $1000 on the validity of your respective statements against the same amount of my money by proving the above.
Being through that with some fanatics like you, I can bet you won't even
accept the challenge under trumped up excuses.

Bryan Mullinax - 2/20/2008

I think you forgot one fact. All these lovely statistics (provided by Cuba, of course) and still the ocean bottom between Cuba and Florida is littered with the bodies of Cubans who attempted to flee this wonderful communist paradise.

And the hordes of people attempting to go the other way? That statistic seems to be pretty close to zero.

Joseph Mutik - 2/19/2008

The data about the number of physicians, hospital beds, schools, mortality rates and more can only be obtained from official documents, so cut the H* S*. Don't try to divert the conversation using what educated soviet citizens supposedly knew. You gave us a long list of statistical data which can only be obtained from government publications. Of course private soviet citizens were aware about realities around them but what they knew wasn't reflected in official statistics.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/19/2008

As far as you convictions go, I've encountered the folks like you before who even shown the proof in Encyclopedia Britannica, continued to maintain that they are not convinced... because they did not want to pay the lost bet.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/19/2008

I don't have any intention to debate the ignorant ideologues of your type, who know little about life in the former USSR and even that little
comes from routine propagandist sources of much worse quality than ever provided by infamous "Pravda".
I've lived in both worlds, so speak.
While I heard quite an amount of lies
in the first 43 years of my life, the amount that I heard for the last 18 years living in the US beats the former by quite a wide margin. It is just that lies there were of one particular variety, but here of every possible one.
So whatever you can say about "Pravda" and Kremlin, I can par with "New York Times" and FOX news and White house.
By the way, Soviet authorities
have never offically stated, at the least for the last 25 years of the Soviet rule that the USSR had one of the highest standards of living in the world; this is one more example of the propagandist distortions. All educated Soviet citizens (and there were much more well educated people than in any of the countries listed below - a proven fact) have been aware that the most industrilized Western countries, like USA, Britain, France, West Germany, Austria, Scandinavian countries, Japan, etc. had higher average standards of living.
Find me any sane former Soviet citizen who now lives here or in Russia that did not know this fact before they emigrated to US or any other foreign country, and I'll admit that you're TRUTH itself.

But, let's stick to Cuba.
So, data collected by various organizations and commissions of the UN, by the World Bank, by the Encarta Encylopedia, by CIA, by numerous European, Latin and Central
and North American private and public organizations are all blindly copied from the Cuban governmental sources?
Those guys an gals are all so naive and mighty stupid that while they don't rely exclusively on governmental sources in case of other countries, say US non-democratic friends in Central and Latin America, they do rely on those just in case of Cuba, currently.
Sounds like world-wide conspiracy against hapless American information consumer.
Do you really hope anyone in its right mind will believe such H* S*?

Joseph Mutik - 2/19/2008

During the Pravda era "the most respected international sources", quoting the official soviet statistics wrote that soviet citizens have one of the highest standards of living in the world. Today we know that Russia hes one of the highest mortality rates in the world (especially the male population). In the showcase places like Moscow and Leningrad the soviet citizens lived a little better but outside the showcase the standard of living was (and still is) at the third world level. Not many of the westerners praising USSR went to live there (with the exception of Philby et co who went there because they were afraid of prison or the hangman).
Cuba is today in the "Granma" era and the Havana showcase is presented to us as Cuba, the dissidents are in prison or in Miami. The same "most respected international sources" print Cuban official lies, but I am not convinced.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/19/2008

I tell you another joke Mr. Mutik.
There was written on one of the editorial pages on the Mexican newspaper that if there had been announced in Mexico that Cuba posed
a mortal threat to the US, as the US
political elite and such honest observers as you screamed about those times, 40 millions of Mexicans would have died of laughter.
As far as your (and others')insinuations about the
alleged hunger in Cuba go, read my previous comments on the Fontova's article on this HNN page where all pertaining figures and facts (taken from the most respected international sources, including American) beat your
lies into the ground.

Joseph Mutik - 2/19/2008

For all the gullible who believe "Granma" propaganda.
1) In 1959 the message at the Havana zoo was: "please don't feed the animals"
After a while the message changed to: "please don't eat the animal's food".
Today the message is: "please don't eat the animals"
2) For the 60th anniversary of the communist revolution Brezhnev invited Caesar, Hannibal and Napoleon to watch the military parade. Brezhnev asks them what do they think about the soviet army.
Caesar says: if I would have had all these rockets and artillery I would have conquered the world.
Hannibal says: if I would have had the tanks instead of the elephants I would have conquered the world.
Napoleon very sad, reading Pravda, if I would have had a newspaper like Pravda no one would have known that I lost the battle at Waterloo.

Stephen Cipolla - 2/19/2008

Thanks, Arnold. Obviously, my post was intended to be provocative, although not necessarily to provoke you. The tirade against Che and Cuba was clearly a litany that its "author" had repeated over and over in other places.

Cuba is no democracy. And, it is no capitalist state, either. The latter is reason for the draconian embargo, and it the US oppression of Cuba endures only because it is politcally useful. No one with a modicum of sense considers Cuba a danger to the safety or security of the US, or any other country.

I suppose Cuba's fate would have been much different if it had had oil or natural gas resources. No doubt the accusations of WMDs and bombing and then invasion by US troops would have been necessary. Followed by occupation.

Although many American business executives might have opposed bombing because of the potential threat to the tobacco fields that supply their illegally imported
Montecristos.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/18/2008

The sources of the article's author
are "usual suspects": American anti-Castro terrorist groups, initially sponsored and then shielded from the prosecution by the might of the US government (as they did it for the bomber of the Cuban-Venezualian plane - apparently as part of the "war on terror") and their sponsors from the right on the US political spectre who has always been given cart-blache by the mainstream media in their insidious anti-democratic campaigns of lies and distortion unleashed in this country
against Cuba.
By the way, the horific terrorist plot allegedly prepared by Ghe Gevara and Castro government, discovered
and prevented by the FBI that makes prominent presence in the article's author list of Che's crimes against humanity has been long ago revealed
as, at the least, unsubstantiated by the FBI sources and by all serious, more or less objective historians.

Cuba, of course, is not what one would call a country of a full-fledge democracy compairing to the United States or say, Canada. Many freedoms and liberties that Americans enjoy are still inaccessible to Cubans under
current regime. Numerous human rights violations automatically follow from that lack of freedoms and have been reported by the well-respected human rights watch-dogs organizations.
But situation in many spheres of life
of the majority of the Cuban population is much better if being compared to many Central and South American countries with, the countries to which the US governments and mainstream ideological and political opinion apparently had and still have no or very little beef with, despite the overall terrible conditions common people live in there and the brutality of those regimes.
It is that traditional practice of application of truly vicious double standards by the US official propaganda (not mentioning already the political and idelogical extremists) to evaluation of comparative pro and cons of the actions of declared enemies vs. even temporary allies that
causes the anger and critique of real democrats.
Moreover, no unbiased honest observer
should forget the external conditions
tiny and poor country of Cuba was developing under after 1959:
one of the most severe economic embargoes and political isolations in history with tremendous pressure and terror coming from the lands of its
superpowerful neighbor.
I would like to see how any other capitalist or socialist country of even greater size and resources would survive the similar conditions, prosper, and remain democratic. No such precedents are known to history.

Stephen Cipolla - 2/18/2008

That's a lot of unsubstantiated direct qotation and factual information concerning the actions, speech writing of Guevara. Please provide a list of the sources for them. I have a good bit of negative history concerning Cuba, Castro and Guevara, but nothing as rabid as your piece. I think that substantiation is a modest thing to ask for, given its length and detail.

Louis Nelson Proyect - 2/18/2008

The quotes I have seen from this book seem ridiculous, but I doubt that they are worth tracking down in light of the fact that the author has a blurb from salon.com on the back cover referring to his past writings as "terrific". I could find no such reference on salon.com and when I emailed the author to point me out where the praise could be found, he never got back to me.

Arnold Shcherban - 2/17/2008

The anti-Castro (to be more exact -
anti-socialist) zealots and sponsors of terrorism against Cuba resorted (and continue to do so) to every imaginable lie to stir American
public opinion against socialist Cuba to validate the US ecomico-political elite hatred towards anything even resembling independent of the US policies in the Western hemisphere.
And they, in conspiratorial agreement with the US mainstream media, did enjoy much of a success
in that insidious propagandist endeavor.
However, today, more often than ever before, the amount of evidence based on undeniable facts surface that beats their lies to the ground.

It is enough to compare the figures reflecting development in practically
every sphere of life on Cuba with the
ones under pre-Castro's, pro-US regimes to realize the wickedness,
falsity, and anti-democratism of the anti-socialist, and so-called "free enterprise" zealots.

Literacy before & after revolution:
1959 - 55%; 2005 - 100%.
Life expectancy before & after revolution: 1959 - 60 years; 2006 - 78 years.
Infant mortality before & afre revolution: 1958 - 60; 2004 - 5.8.

Human Poverty Index:
Haiti 42.3%
Honduras 20.5%
Brazil 12.2%
Mexico 9.4%
Colombia 8.9%
Cuba 4.1%
(Note how solidly Cuba Under in spite of the severe economic embargo stretched for decades still beats such free-enterprise large, and considered to be democratic by the US maintream opinion, countries as Mexico and Brasil in that important category
(Brasilian or Cuban economic wonder?)
Sources: UNICEF, United Nations Development Project, Encarta Encyclopedia (if one does not believe
Cuban sources, but does believe whatever the anti-socialist scoundrels trump up).

Persons Per Doctor:
Haiti 10,005
Honduras 2,500
Colombia 1,105
Dominican Republic 949
Brazil 844
United States 421
Cuba 169

Persons Per Hospital Bed:
Haiti 1,250
Honduras 1,000
Colombia 909
Dominican Republic 670
Brazil 370
United States 303
Cuba 185

Proportion of Births Attended by Skilled Health Personnel:
Haiti 24%
Honduras 54%
Colombia 86%
Mexico 86%
Brazil 88%
Argentina 98%
Cuba 100%

Unemployment Rate:
Haiti 70%
Guadeloupe 26.9%
French Guiana 19.2%
Dominican Republic 17%
Uruguay 16.8%
Argentina 15.6%
Colombia 14.2%
Suriname 13.8%
Venezuela 12.2%
Puerto Rico 12%
Trinidad & Tobago 10.4%
Ecuador 11.4%
Peru 10.3%
Brazil 9.7%
Paraguay 9.2%
Guyana 9.1%
Chile 8.1%
Bolivia 8%
Canada 7%
United States 5.5%
Cuba 1.9%
Sources: CIA World Factbook, Encarta
Encylopedia.

Inflation Rate (%):
Dominican Republic 51.20
Haiti 27.00
Venezuela 16.00
Jamaica 12.60
Argentina 9.60
Suriname 9.50
Paraguay 9.20
Bolivia 8.50
Brazil 8.20
Uruguay 7.40
Colombia 7.10
Chile 6.60
Mexico 6.10
Guyana 6.70
Puerto Rico 6.50
Peru 5.70
United States 3.20
Canada 3.00
Cuba 0.30

Proportion of Population with Access to Improved Sanitation:
(Urban and Rural)
Haiti 28%
Mexico 74%
Honduras 75%
Argentina 82%
Colombia 86%
Cuba 98%

Women In Parliamentary Seats:
Haiti 4%
Honduras 6%
Brazil 9%
Colombia 12.2%
United States 14%
Mexico 15.9%
Argentina 31.3%
Cuba 36%
Source: U.N. Statistics Division, Millennium Indicators.

Other Facts:
Cuba is among the top five Latin American countries in protein and calorie intake.

Cuba has compulsory education through the ninth grade and available to 12th grade to all youth; university enrollment exceeding 200,000 with another 90,000 students graduating annually from one of 600 technical and professional training institutes -- all absolutely free.

The average Cuban worker has ten years of education; one of every ten scientists in Latin America and the Caribbean is in Cuba (although Cuba makes up only 2% of the region's population).

In Cuba, 50% of all skilled workers or professionals (including physicians) are women & 29% of management positions are held by women.

Ninety-four percent of the population has electrical service in Cuba, surpassing the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean by some 20%. Television reaches even remote mountain areas and Cuban radio covers the entire island.

The Cubans have built formidable pharmaceutical, genetic engineering and biotechnology industries, and have twenty scientific research centers investigating products from inexpensive pharmaceuticals to "green medicine."

The UN recently announced that Cuba is the only country in Latin America that has no malnutrition.

The majority of Cubans own their homes. During the urban reforms in the early sixties, those Cubans paying rent to landlords who had fled to Miami, continued to pay the same rent to the State for a period of 5 to 10 years after which time the house or apartment became theirs. Servants who lived in the houses of the rich paid rent to the State and became owners of those homes after a period of years. New homes were bought with a government mortgage for approximately $5,000 (with a 2% to 4% interest rate payable over 20-30 years, paid off at no more than 10% of the chief breadwinner's income).

Gas bills in Cuba average 2-4 pesos (8-16 cents) a month; electricity 5-7 pesos (20-28 cents) a month; telephone 6-8 pesos (24-32 cents) a month, the first 300 minutes being free. As you can see, all these services are subsidized by the State.

In 1999, the Latin American Laboratory for the Evaluation of Educational Quality (LLECE) tested 4,000 students in third and fourth grades in 100 randomly selected schools in 14 Latin American countries. Cuba's Elementary Education came out on top. The Cuban children scored 350 points on a scale of 400. Despite the economic blockade, the State maintained free education with a 1,585 billion pesos educational budget in 1999. School enrollment is 100% on the elementary level, and 95% on the secondary level. There is one teacher per 40 children compared to one per 103 in the world. While in 1959 Cuba had only 3 Universities, it now has 47 which have graduated 600,000 students. In 1952, less than 50% of Cuban children went to school, over 40% of the population was illiterate, and 10,000 of the existing 25,000 teachers were unemployed. Now, every child has access to free education, remains in school through 6th grade, and then continues on with secondary education. In most Latin American countries 50% of all enrolled children leave by 4th grade.

A divorce usually takes about 3 months in Cuba and costs $5. Everything is split equally between the separating couple. If there are children involved, the ex-husband has to pay 10% of his wages as alimony, and usually leaves the house so that his ex-wife and children can live in it.

In Cuba, sovereignty resides in the people. Over 97% of the people eligible to vote, vote in an electoral system which serves to nominate and then elect those best suited to fulfill their position. There are three Assemblies: the Municipal Assembly, the Provincial Assembly, and the National Assembly. In the Municipal Assembly, neighbors nominate their candidates who are finally selected by secret ballot vote by the entire constituency. The fact that candidates are not nominated by the Communist Party but by the people themselves, itself marks the democratic nature of the process. In the same way, the election of the members for the Provincial and National Assemblies are selected by secret ballot vote by the people directly. The last electoral process in Cuba began in June 1997 and finished on Feb. 24th, 1998. The previous election took place 5 years earlier, 1992/1993. The election process has two phases: it consists of (1) electing the delegates for the Municipal Assembly, and (2) electing the deputies to the Provincial and National Assemblies.


The Cuban Constitution (discussed and created through numerous public meetings and adopted by secret ballot in a referendum in 1976) states, in the First Article of the Electoral System, Article 131, that: "All citizens with the legal capacity to do so, have the right to take part in the leadership of the State, directly or through their elected representatives to the bodies of People Power, and to participate for this purpose and as prescribed by law in the periodic elections and people's referendums through free, equal, and secret vote." In Cuba, you will find grass-roots democracy never seen anywhere else in the world, where the people themselves nominate their candidates for election. A candidate must get more than 50% of a secret ballot vote to get elected. Even Fidel Castro has to get 50% of a secret ballot vote to represent the electorate. Every candidate nominated faces the electorate on his/her own merit.


The Communist Party is forbidden by law to play any role in the elections. The only publicity allowed to candidates are biographies, which include photos, that are posted at common places, like barber shops and markets. They are not allowed to spend money on furthering their chances for selection. Neither are State organizations permitted to issue statements favoring any candidate.


In order to join the Partido Comunista Cubano (PCC - Cuban Communist Party), Cubans must be chosen as model workers by their co-workers.


Cuba's highest leadership body is the Council of State, of which Fidel Castro is the elected President. He was last elected on February 24th, 1998 (all 601 deputies of the National Assembly, by secret ballot vote, chose him to be the President).


Cuba is a founding member of the Human Rights Council and the United States is not. Cuba was elected with the overwhelming support of 135 countries, more than two-thirds of the United Nations General Assembly, while the United States did not even dare to run as a candidate.


Despite all the media coverage of all the people leaving by boat, by percentage, few Cubans actually leave Cuba, and there are many issues involved. Firstly, before the Cuban Revolution the United States gave very few Cubans visas to come to the United States, but after the revolution the doors were opened wide. Secondly, the United States has held an unjust trade embargo against Cuba for 40 years (which has been condemed several times in the United Nations by almost every country in the world) which has caused the people of Cuba to suffer. Finally, the United States enacted the 'Cuban Adjustment Act', the only act of its kind anywhere in the world, which grants residency to anyone, no matter if they are a criminal or not, who leaves Cuba and reaches the United States in any fashion. Imagine if the same act applied to all of Latin America! How many people from other countries would leave for the United States? How many people leave places like Mexico and the Dominican Republic now?

R.R. Hamilton - 2/16/2008

Excellent comment, Mr. Gaston, which, if I may, I adopt in all its particulars. It is regretable that the first comment about this article reflects the totalitarian presense at HNN, the one which avoids all discussions of merit of an idea but rather resorts, as the last refuge of scoundrels, to mindless name-calling such as "McCarthyism" or "race-baiting".

Robert Lee Gaston - 2/16/2008

This is all very angry, and very passionate. Unfortunately, it is also quite true. Che is not he heroic ideal that he is portrayed to be. In fact, he was quite the butcher. I suppose that is what happens when spoiled little upper class children play at revolution.

J. Feuerbach - 2/16/2008

Wow! And I this time I was under the impression that McCarthyism was dead! Great piece of irrational thinking. Unfortunately, these type of contributions are fading away.