Impressions: Guerilla Warfare
⊆ 10:32 PM by A. Liebendorfer | che , che guevara , cuba , hannah montana , latin america , miley cyrus , nicaragua , revolution , spanish . | ˜ 2 comments »
Translated: "He gave us his example!"
Where have all the riots gone
As your city's motto get pulverized?
What's in love is now in debt
On your birth certificate
So strike the ******* match to light the fuse!
-"Letterbomb," Green Day
Ay Nicaragua, Nicaragüita
La flor más linda de mi querrer
Abonada de la bendita, Nicaragüita
Sangre de Diarangen.
Ay Nicaragua, sos más dulcita
Qué la mielita de Tamagas
Pero ahora que sos libre, Nicaragüita
Yo te quiero mucho más
Pero ahora que sos libre Nicaragüita
Yo te quiero mucho más
-"Nicaragua, Nicaragüita," Carlos Mejía Godoy
"[The guerilla fighter] will also make use of what he learns as the months or years of the war strengthen his revolutionary convictions, making him more radical as the potency of arms is demonstrated, as the outlook of the inhabitants becomes a part of his spirit and of his own life..."
-Guerilla Warfare, Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Translated: "The weapons of revolution and socialism don't come without combat."
I've seen kids walking around campus lately wearing Che Guevara t-shirts. Right there, superimposed on solid red, that infamous face. After finally seeing The Motorcycle Diaries, I questioned one of the students what they thought about the movie or if they'd read the book. The gist of the reply was, "No. Uhh, what's that? Oh, no. Che's just a cool dude."
A cool dude, I could go with that I guess. It struck me odd that so many people were so ignorant about what they were so openly celebrating, but that happens.
The truth is, things are a lot different from Che's time. The Latin American revolutionary hero has since faded away. There are no ideological revolutions and upheavals, only a few diagnosed terrorist groups, just as many unhappy people as there were before, and millions more Che Guevara t-shirts.
Che's political reform was a kind of militant humanism which took every man into account and used them as tools for common good.
Compare that to FARC, the biggest thorn in the side of Colombia's government and probably the largest terrorist group in the Spanish-speaking world. FARC was once the military wing of the Colombian communist party, but then turned to ransom and drug trafficking to fund themselves among other ways.
Nowadays, FARC has very little political if any. They resort to car bombing and kidnappings to flex their muscle. One of the most interesting things I found in Guerilla Warfare is that Che wasn't in favor of terrorism and thought armed uprisings were last resorts. He writes early in the book: "It is necessary to distinguish between sabotage, a revolutionary and highly effective method of warfare, and terrorism, a measure that is generally ineffective and indiscriminate in its results, since it often makes victims of innocent people and destroys a large number of lives that would be valuable to the revolution."
Translated: "The principles are not negotiable. -Fidel"
Most of the book isn't written like this. The majority of it is tried and true ways to start a guerilla unit, not anything page-turning. What's more interesting is the fact he sounds like a broken record, which shows how common sense combat was to him. He was a pure revolutionary.
So what I want to know is, how did Guevara's armed humanism get perverted into terrorism and drug trafficking?
September 24, 2008 at 11:40 PM Translation?
September 25, 2008 at 6:59 AM Oh, now there's English... It's always risky lining up behind a dynamic leader. "Cults of personality" are often the most likely to suffer should something happen to the leader. Especially when violence is involved. Just look a Gandhi, Romero, even Ho Chi Min. When a heroic figure is all that holds a group together and keeps it honest, then the loss of that leaded can devastate both membership and morales.