Thursday, October 21, 2004

Che's Grandson: Fidel Is a Tyrant

Marc Cooper has this:

There’s a fascinating story coming of Mexico ...about the dissident grandson of Che Guevara – Canek Sanchez Guevara. He’s published an open letter from Mexico denouncing Fidel Castro as an “aged tyrant” and as “messianic” leader who persecutes trade unionists and poets alike.

Some background:

I first met Che’s grandson – Canek Sanchez- in Havana in 1991. I was at an afternoon party on the patio of a Cuban friend of mine, a former counter-intelligence officer who had morphed into a writer. Canek, then about 18, showed up agitated and angered and accompanied by the son of another good friend.

The two young men breathlessly told us adults of something awful that had just happened. Canek and his pal had put together a rock band and had just opened their first gig at a nearby Casa De Cultura – a municipal performance space. No sooner had they started playing but a squad of Cuban cops had burst in and chased everyone out, lobbing a tear gas canister or two. Seemed like the state wasn’t too pleased by such a gathering of "hippies."
A few of Canek Sanchez's thoughts
“The Cuban Revolution died some years ago: it had to be killed off by those who act in its name to make sure it didn’t turn against them; it was institutionalized and smothered by its own bureaucracy, by corruption, nepotism and the rigidity of the much-celebrated Cuban ‘revolutionary’ state.”

“All of my criticism of Fidel Castro come from his walking away from the ideals of liberty, from his betrayal of his own people and his frightening zeal to place the interests of the state above those of his people.”

“Let’s be honest, a young rebel like Fidel Castro in today’s Cuba wouldn’t be sent into exile. He’s be shot.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LETTER OF SUPPORT OF CANEK, GRANDSON OF CHE GUEVARA

Dear Anti-lion friends...
Anarchism unites us, it makes us understand what we confront and it gives us the freedom necessary to do it... A hug to all anti-capitalists (be it state capitalism or market capitalism, which is the same), and to all "guaraperos," "areperos," "jalapenos," and "bananeros" [see http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote40]... because I'm one of yours and we are the same thing, the same essence and the same humanity, though sometimes denied...

Regards
Canek

Maybe his son is as brave as Che to confront the lion, but having learned of what happened to his grandfather, he prefers to fight against him as a monkey, not dressed as a lion...

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

Once upon a time, in the deep jungle, lived a Lion and a Monkey... One day the Monkey, tired of the Lion always taking the LION'S SHARE, and seeing that such injustice represented a danger to all the species of the jungle, demanded JUSTICE... The Lion, yawning and stretching, said, "You would have to have paws and sharp teeth..." Then the Monkey, who was very clever, devised a plan: He would go to the costume store, and look like a lion...

When the Lion saw him, noticing that the new lion wasn't a match for him, and fearing COMPETITION, killed him on the spot --before the indifferent look of the little animals of the jungle... And that's how the Law of the Jungle was re-established one more time...

NOTE: Other monkeys survived him...

(more stories: http://committed.to/justiceforpeace)

Roberto Iza Valdés said...
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