[NYTr] BBC: Cuba (& the World) pays tribute to Che Guevara

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

BBC - Oct 9, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7033880.stm

Cuba pays tribute to Che Guevara

The memory of Latin American Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara
is being honoured in Cuba 40 years after his capture and summary
execution.

About 10,000 people attended a ceremony at his mausoleum in Santa
Clara, the town where he once fought a battle during Cuba's revolution.

Raul Castro, brother of ailing Cuban leader Fidel, was at the event.

Other commemorations are being held in Bolivia and Venezuela, countries
where the Argentine-born hero was active.

About 10,000 people attended a ceremony at his mausoleum in Santa
Clara, the town where he once fought a battle during Cuba's revolution.

Raul Castro, brother of ailing Cuban leader Fidel, was at the event.

Other commemorations are being held in Bolivia and Venezuela, countries
where the Argentine-born hero was active.

His heroic struggle and that of other revolutionaries will continue
until savage capitalism is changed Evo Morales
Bolivian president

He had travelled to Bolivia to help lead an uprising but was tracked
down and killed by soldiers in 1967.

Che's ideas and looks have been captivating young people across the
world since the late 1960s, his bearded face and beret acquiring iconic
status.

His critics describe Che as a brutal man who ordered the execution of
dozens of his opponents and helped move Cuba further towards communism
in the early years of the revolution.

'Infinite revolutionary'

The ceremony in Santa Clara opened with Raul Castro reading out a
message from Fidel. 

"I halt in my day-to-day combat to bow my head, with respect and
gratitude, before the exceptional fighter who fell 40 years ago," the
message said.

Suffering from intestinal illness, the 81-year-old Cuban leader handed
over power to Raul 14 months ago.

Che's daughter Aleida Guevara said her father's work had been
vindicated by the recent leftward shift in Latin America.

"Today Latin America begins to awaken and their dreams are coming
true," she said in the mausoleum.

In Bolivia, the leftist President, Evo Morales, visited the site where
Che was first buried after his execution, and addressed a crowd of
mourners on a windswept hill just outside Vallegrande.

"Che lives," he said.

"His heroic struggle and that of other revolutionaries will continue
until savage capitalism is changed.

"Latin America cannot continue being the backyard of American
imperialism."

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez described Che as an "infinite
revolutionary" in a speech on TV just before the anniversary.