Some Standard Cynical CIA-Style Cuba Covid Reporting at The Washington Post

[Judi Lynn]

9. Thanks for sharing that source, very interesting!

I don't know if you really want to rely upon something someone said Che Guevara said to him as proof he was a psychopath!

I did see some interesting examples of Che Guevara's history of actions on the battlefield against the blood-thirsty, U.S.-supported filthy, sadistic dictator, Fulgencio Batista, however.









Batista sitting with Ambassador Earl ET Smith.

References to his behavior during wartime and after:

Guevara's teenage lieutenant, Joel Iglesias, recounts such actions in his diary, noting that Guevara's behavior in combat even brought admiration from the enemy. On one occasion Iglesias recounts the time he had been wounded in battle, stating "Che ran out to me, defying the bullets, threw me over his shoulder, and got me out of there. The guards didn't dare fire at him ... later they told me he made a great impression on them when they saw him run out with his pistol stuck in his belt, ignoring the danger, they didn't dare shoot."[96]

To quell the rebellion, Cuban government troops began executing rebel prisoners on the spot, and regularly rounded up, tortured, and shot civilians as a tactic of intimidation.[98] By March 1958, the continued atrocities carried out by Batista's forces led the United States to stop selling arms to the Cuban government.[86] Then in late July 1958, Guevara played a critical role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. Years later, Major Larry Bockman of the United States Marine Corps analyzed and described Che's tactical appreciation of this battle as "brilliant".[99] During this time Guevara also became an "expert" at leading hit-and-run tactics against Batista's army, and then fading back into the countryside before the army could counterattack.[100]

To quell the rebellion, Cuban government troops began executing rebel prisoners on the spot, and regularly rounded up, tortured, and shot civilians as a tactic of intimidation.[98] By March 1958, the continued atrocities carried out by Batista's forces led the United States to stop selling arms to the Cuban government.[86] Then in late July 1958, Guevara played a critical role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. Years later, Major Larry Bockman of the United States Marine Corps analyzed and described Che's tactical appreciation of this battle as "brilliant".[99] During this time Guevara also became an "expert" at leading hit-and-run tactics against Batista's army, and then fading back into the countryside before the army could counterattack.[100]

To implement a portion of this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, for a five-month tenure (2 January through 12 June 1959).[118] Guevara was charged by the new government with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those regarded as traitors, chivatos (informants) or war criminals.[119] As commander of La Cabaña, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process.[9] The tribunals were conducted by 2–3 army officers, an assessor, and a respected local citizen.[120] On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by firing-squad.[121] Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, has argued that the death penalty was justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as had happened twenty years earlier in the anti-Machado rebellion.[122] Biographers note that in January 1959 the Cuban public was in a "lynching mood",[123] and point to a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process.[9] Moreover, a 22 January 1959, Universal Newsreel broadcast in the United States and narrated by Ed Herlihy featured Fidel Castro asking an estimated one million Cubans whether they approved of the executions, and being met with a roaring "¡Si!" (yes).[124] With as many as 20,000 Cubans estimated to have been killed at the hands of Batista's collaborators,[125][126][127][128] and many of the accused war criminals sentenced to death accused of torture and physical atrocities,[9] the newly-empowered government carried out executions, punctuated by cries from the crowds of "¡al paredón!" ([to the] wall!),[115] which biographer Jorge Castañeda describes as "without respect for due process".[129]

I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed "an innocent". Those persons executed by Guevara or on his orders were condemned for the usual crimes punishable by death at times of war or in its aftermath: desertion, treason or crimes such as rape, torture or murder. I should add that my research spanned five years, and included anti-Castro Cubans among the Cuban-American exile community in Miami and elsewhere.
—Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, PBS forum[130]

Thanks for posting the link to this Wikipedia information.



Liked puppies, also! 🐶