Bolivarian Youth Speak Out; Victims or Provocateurs?

From the Miami Herald's Casey Woods:

With their fealty to Ché Guevara, their revolutionary discourses peppered with ''proletariat'' and ''comrade,'' and their ''Read Lenin'' and ''Burn Your Bra!'' T-shirts, the Bolívarian Youth seem almost retro, a throwback to a more, well, unwashed time.

But these young people, like generations of students before them, believe they can change the world -- and they say their message is getting through in Miami, home to hundreds of thousands of exiles from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, homelands they fled because of political repression they blame on leftist governments.

''What we are doing is important, because people see us and know that they're not alone,'' said Sonja Swanson, 20, a Florida International University student.

``We are growing slowly but surely, moving more and more people here to dedicating themselves to something bigger than the individual person.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/16576176.htm

Comments

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

No, not change the world; they still believe they can enslave the world.

[Cantinflas]

Oscar, these kids are idiots and don't deserve any kind of notoriety for their efforts - not even a mention on your blog.

They are no better than the idiot kids who get wrapped up in other subcultures as a way of rebelling or expressing themselves. They aren't bright, or principled, or trying to make the world a better place - they're idiots.

And I don't use that word loosely - it is time to return common sense to our discussions and call out idiocy when we see it.

Would the Herald profile a white supremicist group in such glowing fashion, or dismiss it as youthful curiousity? Would FIU allow the Junior Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to set up a table in their courtyard?

These idiots should not be rewarded for their support of individuals and systems of government which have enslaved and murdered millions.

[Stan Circ]

We should salute these brave young souls that speak out against the current oppression brought on by the Bush administration. They have enough courage to speak out in even the most dangerous most anti socialist places in the world. They are clearly unconcerned about themselves and working for the greater good!

Viva Fidel! Viva Che! Viva la revoluction!

[Cantinflas]

The useful idiots waste no time in applauding one another.

Too bad Fidel won't meet the same fate as Che Guevera, who died like a whimpering dog pleading for his life.

I wonder how many of the idiots who wear his image on their chest know about Che's cowardice, and how he bartered for his life like a prostitute quibbles over her fee, in the final moments of his life.

Good riddance Che. Good riddance Fidel. Good riddance "revoluction."

[nonee moose]

heehee.... comrade... hey, do they wear those furry hats at their meetings?

changing the world... one socially awkward geek-in-crisis at a time...

say, when's the next bake sale/marxist poetry festival?

[Stan Circ]

Che didn't beg for his life. He died like a man. His last words where: "What are you waiting for? Shoot me now! I am but a man."

The revolution will succeed. The communist system in Cuba won't die with Fidel.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"Don't shoot; I'm 'Che'; I can be useful to you." — "Che's" words unto being captured

Quite apart from the fact that a man who murders thousands in cold blood cannot be anything but a coward, there is the fact that "Che" attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head when he first heard that "the Americans had landed." Of course, it wasn't the Americans who landed but the 2506 Brigade.

"Che," of course, survived; he was such a poor marksman that he couldn't even finish himself off with a submachine gun.

[Stan Circ]

So you expect me to believe that someone who shoots them self in the head with a submachine gun from point blank range would survive? Yea right. Also Che did not murder anyone in cold blood. I challenge you to cite one law national or international that would convict him of murder. That was in force while he was alive.

[victor]

cantinflas? How does a prostitute quible for her fee? Let me offer you this one.If you had a copy of the famous photo of che signed by korda what would you do???

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Stan:

Yes, it does take a rather extraordinary measure of incompetence to shoot oneself with a submachine gun at point blank range and survive. But such was "Che" Guevara. His incompetence knew no limits.

You challenge me "to cite one law national or international that would convict ["Che"] of murder. That was in force while he was alive."

Well, we could start with the Cuban Constitution of 1940, which abolished the death penalty.

As for international law, there is the precedent of the Nuremberg trials.

[Mambi Watch]

Oh Tellechea,

What does the abolishment of the death penalty have anything to do with what Guevara did? What does the constitution of 1940 have anything to do with it all? It's irrelevant to what happened in '59 and after.

The UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions should have been observed, if the US wanted to try Guevara on war crimes. But, the US almost immediately violated all those treaties and sought aggression, a crime under international law.

Second, if we go by the Nuremburg standards, then the US is a gross violator of international law, and guilty of war crimes too.

Guevara is gone, and the US missed its chance to bring him to trial under international jurisdiction.

Let us now speak seriously of international laws.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Watcher:

The Cuban Revolution was predicated on the restoration of the Constitution of 1940. Once in power Castro broke his promise to the Cuban people to do so. The 1940 Constitution, one of the world's most progressive, abolished the death penalty, thereby saving Castro's own life after the abortive terrorist attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953.

If Castro had attacked a military compound in the U.S. he would have been subject to the death penalty. In any other Latin American country no trial would have been necessary. In Cuba he was tried by Cuba's independent judiciary and released from prison after less than 2 years thanks to a Batista amnesty, which a craven Castro readily accepted.

When Stan asked what national laws could have been used to try "Che" Guevara for the reign of terror he unleashed on the Cuban people, I naturally replied the Constitution of 1940, which would have actually spared his life as it did Castro's.

The fact that the U.S. may itself be guilty of "war crimes" in Iraq or elsewhere does not exculpate Guevara of his responsibility for his own crimes in peace and war.

By the way, how many of Guevara's victims were tried under international jurisdiction?

[leftside]

It is an outrage that the Herald would legitimize the violence against these youth by putting the word "provocateurs" in the headline. And to have as the last line a quote from an FIU guy saying the disgusting episode "shows a diversity of opinion can be tolerated" just takes the cake.

[a thought...]

How ironic that the guy in this picture is wearing a t-shirt that proclaims to respect the freedom of speech. The first thing that goes in the governments of Castro and Chavez is just that: the freedom of speech. Because, mind you, they are promulgating their ideas here, not over in the countries that they proclaim to admire so much. These little Starbuck-toting "revolutionaries" would be the first ones to cry "foul" if someone took from them and gave it go someone else. It is very comfortable and very easy to espouse these ideas while you are sitting in front of a state-of-the-art computer in a comfy room with a working TV that gets satellite and brand new clothes from the Gap hanging in your closet. I encourge these "revolutionaries" to travel to Cuba and/or Nicaragua and for them to live with "el pueblo". They will be back within the week screaming for their Abercrombie & Fitch and running hellbent for leather towards Dadeland Mall.

By the way, I love the "Squash Capitalism" hand out. May I assume that all their stuff is free of charge? So I can pick up a quaint "che" shirt for free?