Free Republic

“One Thousand Killed in 5 days of Fierce Street Fighting!” read a New York Times headline on Jan 4, 1959. The fake news headline dealt with the (utterly bogus) “battle” of Santa Clara in central Cuba where Ernesto “Che” Guevara earned much of his enduring (and totally bogus) martial fame. “Commander Che Guevara appealed to Batista troops for a truce to clear the streets of casualties,” continues the breathless The New York Times article. “Guevara turned the tide in this bloody battle and whipped a Batista force of 3,000 men!”A year later, Che’s own diaries revealed that his forces (which actually numbered...

A radical group linked to rogue billionaire George Soros has been providing scripts containing anti-Trump talking points for constituents to read aloud during congressional town hall meetings. One of the scripts distributed by the Revolutionary Love Project encourages town hall participants meeting with their member of Congress to accuse the Trump administration of – wait for it – “xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia.” Constituents are urged to use those precise words to “forcefully condemn” President Trump’s immigration and border security initiatives, Aaron Klein reports at Breitbart News. Information about the scripts came as leaked audio from anti-Trump activists associated with the...

The Motorcycle Diaries is not a “coming-of-age” story as it has been described by a number of commentators. When Che Guevara took off on a motorcycle journey across South America he was not a teenager; he was 23-years-old and therefore already “of age.” In my view, this book has nothing to do with coming-of-age issues, rather it is a “hippie discovers communism” kind of story. The Che Guevara that we meet in The Motorcycle Diaries is a hippie who drifts from place to place without any coherent plan. He is alienated from society. He sees the ill effects of materialism...

David Greco, cofounder and executive director of ARTE Inc., said Wednesday he’s confident police will be able to identify the individual who vandalized one of the organization’s “Heroes & Icons” posters at City Hall earlier this week. The unidentified vandal scrawled the word “asesino,” the Spanish word for “murderer,” in black ink atop the shoulder of the Argentine Marxist-Leninist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Greco said a police report has been filed and City Hall security personnel are reviewing surveillance camera footage. The exhibit, which went up Sept. 22 to honor Hispanic History Month, includes approximately 40 posters depicting Latino historical...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

THERE is no guerilla fighter in the world as famous as Che Guevara. The revolutionary’s face adorns the T-shirts of wannabe radicals everywhere and 41 years after his death he is still idolised by the Left. Now Ernesto Guevara, to give him his real name, is getting the big Hollywood movie treatment. Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro plays the Argentinian revolutionary in two films directed by Steven Soderbergh, the man behind Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. But while Soderbergh’s films — Che: Part 1 and Che: Part 2 — largely follow the predictable path of lauding him as...