New book by Ché

Unpublished book by Ché Guevara to be Launched on Thursday

An unpublished book by Ché Guevara titled “Philosophical Notes” will be launched June 14 at the International Press Center in this city capital.

Ocean Press and Ocean South publishing houses will launch the document, which along a previous one titled “Critical Notes on Economics” makes up the foundations of Ché’s Marxist thinking.

The new book includes writings in three moments of Ché’s life: notes during his adolescence and early youth; written reflections in Tanzania, Prague and Cuba; and studies on theoretical works Ché began to do just after he arrived in Bolivia, according to Cubadebate website.

Also see

The Economics of Revolution

Who Killed Che?

How the CIA Got Away With Murder
.

“Ratner and Smith cut through the lies and distortions to provide a riveting and thoroughly documented history of the murder of Che Guevara. In an era when ‘targeted assassinations’ and ‘capture and kill operations’ have become routine, and are routinely glorified by the mainstream U.S. press, their examination of the U.S. role in Che Guevara’s death could not be more timely.” —  

Amy Goodman,DemocracyNow!

.
In compelling detail two leading U.S. civil rights attorneys recount the extraordinary life and deliberate killing of the world’s most storied revolutionary: Ernesto Ché Guevara. Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith survey the extraordinary trajectory of Ché’s career, from an early politicization recounted in the Motorcycle Diaries, through meetings with his compañero Fidel Castro in Mexico, his vital role in the Cuban revolution, and his expeditions abroad to Africa and Latin America. But their focus is on Ché’s final days in Bolivia where, after months of struggle to spread the revolution begun in Havana, Ché is wounded, captured and, soon after, executed. Bound and helpless, Ché’s last words to his killer, a soldier in the Bolivian Army, are “Remember, you are killing a man.”
.
Referencing internal U.S. government documentation, much of it never before published, Ratner and Smith bring their forensic skills as attorneys to analyze the evidence and present an irrefutable case that the CIA not only knew of and approved the execution, but was instrumental in making it happen. Cables from the agency disavowing any U.S. role in the murder were merely attempts to provide plausible deniability for the Johnson administration. 
.
The spirit of Ché Guevara, as an icon and an inspiration, is as vibrant today as it ever was. News photographs of democracy protestors in the Middle East carrying his image have circulated the world in recent months. For anyone drawn to his remarkable life and its violent, unlawful end, Who Killed Ché ? will engage, anger and educate. 
.

By this book

• Paperback

• eBook 

CIA attack on La Coubre

.

Publication of the secret file on the  

CIA attack on La Coubre
 restricted 150 years

. 

.
The complete file of the investigation of the French CGT shipping company into the sabotage of the La Coubre vessel, responsibility for which is attributed to the CIA, is being held in the strongbox of a French maritime foundation, with a 150-year restriction on its release set by the legal counsel of the vessel’s last owners.

The file, whose existence was unknown until recently, lay for close to 50 years in the enormous collection of records belonging to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), also known as French Line, the owner of La Coubre when the tragedy struck in Havana on March 4, 1960.

Alberto Korda’s iconic photo of Ché Guevara
was taken at the La Coubre memorial service.

The content of this file would seem to be of greatest interest, given its information on details of the act of terrorism in Havana that have never been made public. It came from the Legal Office of the defunct CGT and is marked "Classified," with the surprising prohibition "PUBLICATION RESTRICTED 150 YEARS."

The existence of such a dossier of information about La Coubre crime certainly constitutes one more mysterious element in the web of enigmas surrounding the most significant act of terrorism of the century in the Americas.

You can find the whole story here

Ché's Travelling Companion Alberto Granado Passed Away

.

Alberto Granado, whose 1952 journey across South America with Ernesto Ché Guevara, which was recounted a half-century later in the film "The Motorcycle Diaries," began as a youthful adventure but turned into a political awakening that helped make Guevara a leftist radical and an icon of revolution, died March 5 in Cuba,

.

"He was a man who fought and died for what he thought was fair . . . and as time goes by and countries are governed by increasingly corrupt people . . . Ché's persona gets bigger and greater, and he becomes a man to imitate. He is not a god who needs to be praised or anything like that, just a man whose example we can follow in always giving our best in everything we do.” Alberto Granado

.
Argentinean biochemistry doctor, writer, and scientist Alberto Granado, a close friend of Ernesto Ché Guevara who accompanied him during a trip around Latin America, died suddenly on Saturday in Havana at the age of 88.

A note read on Cuban television on Saturday afternoon informed that, in accordance with his wishes, Granado’s body is to be cremated and his ashes spread in Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela.

Between December 29, 1951, and July 1952, Granado embarked on a tour of South America with Ché Guevara. They witnessed firsthand the poverty of disenfranchised native peoples and their frequent lack of access to otherwise cheap and basic medical care. These experiences galvanized both men in realizing their future vocations.

Granado was the author of the book ‘Travelling with Ché Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary’, which served as reference for the 2004 film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ in which he was played by Rodrigo de la Serna, while Ché Guevara was played by Gael García Bernal.

Read a BBC Interview with Alberto
..........> My Best Friend Ché

EU awards Cuban 'dissident' 50,000 euros

.
European Parliament encourages hunger strikes

by Helen Yaffe for RATB

The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize to Cuban ‘dissident’ Guillermo Fariñas in recognition of his contribution to 'human rights' in Cuba. Fariñas’ twentieth hunger strike, to demand the release of Cuban political prisoners, ended in July 2010 after 135 days, during which he was kept alive in intensive care by Cuban medics. The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek said: ‘Fariñas is an independent journalist and a political dissident who has shown that he is ready to sacrifice himself and risk his health and his life as a way of applying pressure to achieve change in Cuba.’ However, Buzek did not mention Fariñas record of non-political violent crime or his employment under US programmes to destabilise the Cuban Revolution.

In 1995 Fariñas assaulted, battered and threatened to kill a female doctor, the director of a hospital. Sentenced to three years and a 600 peso fine, he initiated his first hunger strike, and joined the counter-revolution for the first time. In 2002, an old woman he attacked with a walking stick needed emergency surgery. Sentenced to five to ten years, Farinas began a second hunger strike. His third hunger strike was to demand a television in the hospital wing where he was recovering from dehydration caused by the second. In December 2003, Cuban authorities released him because of his medical condition, but in 2006 Farinas initiated another hunger strike to demand internet access from his home. This was to assist his work as a 'reporter' for the CIA radio station, Radio Martí. Fariñas works closely with the US Interests Section (a substitute for an embassy) and other European diplomats who direct subversion in Cuba, receiving instructions, money and supplies. He lacks popular support and the Cuban people, who Fariñas claims to represent, consider him to be a mercenary for US imperialism.

More ...

Helen Yaffe is the author of Ché Guevara The Economics of Revolution essential reading for those interested in understanding Ché’s full contribution to the Cuban Revolution.