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Home Page > News > Irish Che Guevara statue called “an outrage” by leading US politicians

Irish Che Guevara statue called “an outrage” by leading US politicians

Galway councilor defends his plan to erect memorial to Cuban guerilla

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, March 26, 2012, 7:03 AM

Updated Monday, March 26, 2012, 10:53 AM

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Photo of a Che Guevara statue at the site of his death in Bolivia.

Photo by Google Images

The Galway councillor who proposed building a statue to Che Guevara in the Irish city has accused American opponents of interfering in Irish affairs.

Billy Cameron has insisted that the West of Ireland is quite entitled to celebrate Guevara’s Irish heritage.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the powerful head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has written to the Irish Prime Minister asking that the statue be stopped.

Ros-Lehtinen called the proposal ‘an outrage’ in a statement to the Huffington Post.

She said: “Despite the image makeover which some try to give him, the real Che Guevara was a mass murderer and human rights abuser.

“To honor him with a monument would be an outrage, and would be a futile attempt to hide the brutal acts which he committed.

Responding to the growing criticism in America, Galway City Councillor Cameron stated: “Everybody who has spoken out on this issue is within their rights to voice their objections.

“But the project was given the full and unanimous support of the council. I honestly think this has been blown out of all proportion.

“The project commemorates Guevara’s Irish ancestry. The Galway connection was established some years ago.

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“He’s related to two of the Galway tribes, the Lynches and the Blakes. We want to celebrate somebody from our historic past.”

Cameron made his remarks as a second American politician went to war with the Galway City Council over their plans to erect a statue to Guevara in the city.

Florida based Representative Mario Diaz-Balart has joined the Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in slamming the plans.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen has led the charge against plans by the Council to honor Guevara’s ancestral links with the West of Ireland.

She said: “Instead of honoring a killer, the City Council of Galway should honor the victims of Che and the Castro dictatorship by rejecting this proposal.”

“The romanticizing image that this monument would portray would serve to diminish the brutality that was committed by Che and the painful suffering endured by many Cuban-American families and his other victims far and wide. Che Guevara was a ruthless killer who should not be idealized.”

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POL O L | Aug 03, 2012, 11:53 AM EDT

I read this here in Eire and fell around laughing. Some R Rep King sort of stated that if it is erected U S Business may want to pull out etc.Get a life.Mandella=Terrorist.Gandhi=Terrorist.Michael Collins=Terrorist,Do some forget these things?They were all freedom fighters.

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seanomelb | Mar 29, 2012, 10:48 PM EDT

Castro overthrew the repressive Batista regime.He (Batista)aligned himself with the landed gentry and suspended the 1940 constitution.Batista like his cohorts in central and south America were U.S. puppets.The U.S. did not give a dam about the basic human rights of others and are culpable in the murder of thousands of people south of the Rio Grande to Tierra Del fuega.Socialism was their way out of the shackles of American tyranny I suppose one could make a case that the U.S. brought communism to the Caribbean by it's tyranny and intransigence.

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BrianO | Mar 29, 2012, 09:27 AM EDT

I'll consider the source when told what is valid Seano. Since this thread has to do with the revolutionary genius of Che and the pro communist movement, why not turn over all your wealth to your government, so they can redistribute it to the proper sources. Live the simple life of a Cuban national, do your assigned labor collect your bag of rice and beans. If you believe the communist way is the best, stop complaining and jettison your capital, live the dream.

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seanomelb | Mar 28, 2012, 07:12 PM EDT

Collins sent his death squad out to shoot (11?) Brit secret service agents during the tan war.The US sent its death squad to kill Bin Laden and so on.Make a valid point instead of condoning death squads that you favour,BrianO.

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BrianO | Mar 28, 2012, 12:05 PM EDT

Did Michael Collins have death squads? Che opposed free elections that's progressive. Che was also a total failure as a leader. Anyone can be remade to a useful tool for the communists, beware idealistic freedom lovers you are the target. Think for yourself.

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IrelandNorth | Mar 28, 2012, 06:42 AM EDT

Nice to have the socioeconomic luxury of being "outraged" (sic) about the erection (ahem!) of a statue to a great revolutionary leader on a par with such great American Revolutionaries as George Washington and Paul Revere, who did chased their Redcoats out of South America. Republican America has lost its way. Ireland doesn't need codependent tourism. You're all welcome, of course. But it's impolite to set preconditions. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was a Sth. American Michael Collins. Viva la revolucion, mi amigos!

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NickOHara | Mar 27, 2012, 10:34 PM EDT

So many so-and-so's complaining over a statue of Che ... Saying he is such and so of a demon ... What would they like instead ? ... A statue of Augusto Pinochet ? Hitler ? ... or the [unmentionable] 'Swine' who whipped and starved the poor off their own ancestral homes ? Huffington Post , my eye ... What is going on in YOUR OWN backyard?

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ciaradexy | Mar 27, 2012, 01:26 PM EDT

Murph, 2 Irish politicans went to the US for Paddys day and they were INVITED over.

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ciaradexy | Mar 27, 2012, 01:24 PM EDT

Dickmc-dick by name, dick by nature. Stop being so here are more Anti-catholics in Ireland than you even know. Che had no influence on that.

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BrianO | Mar 27, 2012, 12:32 PM EDT

So many communist today. Do any of you own anything?

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seagreen | Mar 27, 2012, 08:59 AM EDT

Citizenwhy makes a valid point! We are presently training thugs and killers for the US friendly elements in South America in Georgia, Every country has a segment of government people with an international agenda.. There are Irish that show up in Washington looking for money. There are Americans willing to give it to them providing the US is allowed to use Shannon Airport as if it were Andrews Air Force Base. There are Irish that howled in protest on RTE when it was suggested that Ireland make a donation to Katrina "America has enough millionaires" (it was not about the money, it was the gesture) this was at the height of the Celtic Tiger ! The Americans have such a wonderful history in South America. The meat packing companies I.E., Swift and Co. Wilson Beef etc in Rosario, Argentina in the 1930's buying local politicians and fermenting discord and death due to their tactics. United Fruit in Central America, again using local bought off politicians to do what they damn well pleased, and of course that great guy Pinochet (Americas guy) in Chile disposing of the duly elected Salvador Allende (so American corporations could control Chilean minerals) We now have the new Irish in America, they are flying their Irish flags alongside their American flags on their waterfront property in Scituate and Cape Cod. Their father was probably driving a bus in Dorchester 50 years ago, but they are now arch conservatives! There is a foreseeable end to the Irish attatchment to the US, that began with what are now Irish 40 yr. olds and younger. Many so called Irish Americans would get a rude awakening visiting Ireland today. Che Guevera came from wealth and priviledge, anything he did was not for the money, which is more than some of his violent critics could ever understand, Whatever Che did, he was a punk compared to the foreign policy that America has exerted on the world for the past sixty years. So if Ireland wants to build a statue, it is their business

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VonLiebenitz | Mar 27, 2012, 01:04 AM EDT

I,m not quite sure which is a bigger outrage.Putting up a statue of Che Guevara arguably a controversial subject no matter what side you take or inviting the biggest mass murderer in all history.The Queen of England.

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CHICANODEAZTLAN | Mar 26, 2012, 09:14 PM EDT

No one, but no one..., who is NOT a citizen of Ireland or of any country, has the right to tell any sovereign nation how to run it's own internal affairs! What arrogance! What gall! American Republican Congresspeople Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz Balart, two of the most extremist rabid rightwing exiled anti-Castro "Cuban" Americans have no business telling what statues Ireland can or can not erect! I ask ALL decent Irish citizens to TOTALLY ignore these two interloping clowns and erect the statue of Comandante de la Revolucion Cubana..., or whatever statue Ireland wants to erect! ...That's your own right as a sovereign citizen of your own country! Again, I repeat..., it's your own home and NOT of those "Cuban" Americans"! HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE! LA LUCHA CONTINUA! (TILL VICTORY FOREVER! THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!) - E.F. Mohammed Martinez - Chicano Anti-Fascist Freedom Fighter - Spear of the Aztlan National Congress

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AlunPalmer | Mar 26, 2012, 09:09 PM EDT

Well, they would be upset about a statue of Dr. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara Lynch, wouldn't they? Yes, I have his name right, the second to last name is the surname in the Spanish custom, and he was a doctor of medicine, who first got involved with the rebels by treating them as a doctor. The Americans were the ones who had him killed, after all. His friend Castro was a man of many flaws, but he was an enormous improvement over the American's stooge, Juan Bautista, who committed atrocities that would make your toes curl. Castro may have locked up his enemies without trial, but Bautista tortured and maimed his enemies.

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Towngate | Mar 26, 2012, 09:01 PM EDT

manhatton@09.23 should know that with many family members and friends in the Americanias,that this Commenters remarks reflect the love felt for the USA. What I don't like is the way it feels it has to bomb and bully its way around the world, and it's appalling human rights abuses. Remind yourself exactly what happened at the Bay of Pigs, and where the Americanian Guantanimo Bay Torture Centre is! >>> colkelley @09.30 resorts to racist remarks and reminds us that the 'drunken stumblebums' who built the place, only succeeded in constructing a very (quote:)"dark,moist, smelly place".>>> jamieLM @09.51. Hi! I usually like your comments, but here I find you claiming to speak for the 'vast majority of American(ian)s' who don't care who Ireland honours with a statue or memorial.You could have shown some class and sophistication, honey, by just leaving it at that, without resorting to xenophobic insults too. For your information, the Irish countryside, towns and cities are a-wash with statuary to an array ofIrish and British heros; both animal and human! We like it that way, and don't welcome outside interference in who or what we choose to honour and respect in our own country.

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