[NYTr] 2008: Intl Year of Che in Argentina

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

["Fading" legacy, Reuters?  Not in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Peru,
Bolivia, much of Asia and Africa, and certainly not in Cuba. -NY
Transfer]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

2008: Intl Year of Che in Argentina

Rosario, Argentina, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) Next year will be
International Year of Che in Rosario, Argentina, Santa Fe Gov. Jorge
Obeid announced on Tuesday at a gathering paying tribute to Ernesto Che
Guevara on the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

Obeid said that activities scheduled to commemorate Che's 80th birthday
(June 14) will pay tribute to one of the greatest revolutionaries in
the history of humankind.

It will also be a recognition for the government, the State and the
people of Cuba, because Che fought for a Revolution that became
reality, made progress and remains, despite the US blockade, military
actions and discrimination.

Obeid presented two copies of the Che Year Proclamation to Cuban
Embassy Political Consul Francisco Delgado, one of them to be given to
President Fidel Castro.

"This is for Commander Fidel Castro, with the hope that, by the way
he"s been recovering from his illness, next year we may have him here,
too," he told journalists.

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Chilean Hero: Che Legacy Spurs Youth

Santiago de Chile, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) Harry Villegas (Pombo), a
former guerilla with Ernesto Guevara, affirmed Tuesday that Che's
revolutionary struggle has become a battle weapon for young people, who
follow his example of social commitment.

In front of a large crowd of foreign correspondents at Chile's Unitary
Workers Central, the Hero of the Republic of Cuba asserted that the
internationalist Argentine-Cuban is a model to create more human and
equal societies.

Villegas expressed gratitude for the several activities of remembrance
carried out by the people of Chile and by Chilean political and social
organizations in Che's name within the framework of the 40th
anniversary of his death in Bolivia.

He also affirmed this visit allowed him to recall scenes from the
northern cities of Arica and Iquique, after the capture and murder of
the heroic guerrilla in Bolivia in 1967 at the orders of imperialism.

In response to a question, Villegas said that Che would be very proud
and would also be on the side of the Latin American peoples, among them
Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, who are constructing more
human and democratic societies.

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Guatemala to Launch Che Book

Guatemala, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) A compilation of 20 poems written by
Che will be launched in Guatemala Tuesday on occasion of the 40th
anniversary of the physical disappearance of the legendary commander.

"The aim of the book is to show Che"s humanist aspect, not only that of
the guerrilla fighter," his author Marco Vinicio Mejias told Prensa
Latina.

Many of those poems were written by Ernesto Guevara during his trip to
Guatemala in late 1953, attracted by the process of change in this
country, known as "the decade of the Democratic Spring." "Che Guevara,
poesia completa" (Che Guevara, Complete Poetry) is the title of the
volume, which also includes a Pablo Neruda essay, as well as poems by
Nicolas Guillen, Jose Lezama Lima, Julio Cortazar, Mario Benedetti,
Jose Saramago, Roque Dalton and Thomas Merton, among others.

"Che was a man with absolute moral coherence, a man who acted as he
thought," said Mejias, who also highlighted, among his qualities,
austerity, solid formation and his internationalist spirit.

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Namibia, Ecuador Honor Che

Windhoek, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) The Namibian people recalled heroic
guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara in a ceremony that closed the
world drive for solidarity with five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters
serving unfair prison terms in the US.

National Hero Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, also president of the
Namibian-Cuban Friendship Association, led this country's homage to the
internationalist legendary combatant.

Che's example and legacy have been expressed in the performance of the
Five, who for defending their principles, have been condemned to harsh
sentences, participants in the event stated.

Meanwhile in Ecuador, Jose Regato, father of that country's ten-verse
country music, paid tribute to heroic guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara in
the 40th anniversary of his death in Bolivia.

Inspired in his ideas and figures, Regato dedicated one of his songs to
the Argentinean-Cuban commander.

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Panama Daily Headlines Che Legend

Panama, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) The influential Panamanian newspaper La
Prensa headlined on Tuesday Ernesto Guevara's image as still a
universal symbol of rebellion four decades after his death.

In an extensive article "The Guerrilla Paradigm," the daily refers to
Che's work until his assassination in Bolivia and the impact of his
revolutionary legend.

The article by Aristides Cajar states that the man died and the myth
was born the date of the crime in La Higuera.

After a detailed retelling of his life, the military feat in Cuba and
his campaigns in Congo and Bolivia, the article points out that his
remains are buried in the central Cuban province of Santa Clara, and a
kind of curse haunts those involved in his assassination.

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