Hasta la Victoria, Siempre… Commandante!

September 30, 2007

Cuban doctors volunteering in Bolivia performed a free cataract surgery for Mario Teran, the Bolivian army sergeant who killed the legendary guerilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara in captivity, the daily Granma newspaper reported.

“Four decades after Mario Teran attempted to destroy a dream and an idea, Che returns to win yet another battle, and continues on in the struggle,” the Communist Party of Cuba’s official newspaper said.

On October 9, 1967, Teran killed Guevara while he was being held prisoner and suffering from combat wounds in La Higuera, the paper recounted. It said he acted on orders from generals Rene Barrientos and Alfredo Ovando, as well as the White House and the US Central Intelligence Agency, to execute the Argentine-Cuban rebel leader.

Nearly forty years to the day later, Teran underwent eye surgery in a Santa Cruz hospital that was donated by the Cuban government and recently inaugurated by Bolivian President Evo Morales.

“Now an old man, he (Teran) can once again appreciate the colours of the sky and the forest, to enjoy the smiles of his grandchildren, and to watch football games,” the article said.

“But surely he will never be capable of seeing the difference between the ideas that drove him to murder a man in cold blood, and the ideas of that very man.”

The reports said one of Teran’s sons asked the local Santa Cruz daily El Deber to publish a notice thanking the Cuban doctors who restored his father’s sight with the successful operation.

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Cuban-doctors-help-Che-Guevaras-killer/2007/09/30/1191090937455.html>

Another report of the same story.

Havana, Sep 29 (Prensa Latina) Cuban doctors doing free cataract surgery at a hospital donated by the Island operated on Bolivian ex Sergeant Mario Teran assassin of guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara in 1967.

Teran, now an elderly, was operated on in Santa Cruz at an institution that President Evo Morales inaugurated.

The ex military slain Che in October 1967 at the school in La Higuera, after he was caught wounded and unarmed the day before, reminds the Cuban daily Granma in its feature Che vuelve a ganar otro combate (Che Wins a New Combat).

“No one will remember him tomorrow, as it happened four decades ago when he hit the news (…) I ask you not erase this name (Mario Teran) from your memory, so no one will forget and all will judge,” said the author.

Teran Jr. Went to Santa Cruz daily El Deber as asked to release a note thanking the Cuban doctors who restored his father’s sight via Operation Miracle program.

He will never be able to draw a line between the ideas that turned him a cold-blooded murderer and this man that sent doctors from his guerrilla ranks to cure alike wounded comrades and enemies.

And stresses “Remember this name: Mario Teran, a man trained to kill that sees again thanks to the doctors that followed the ideas of his victim.”

Teran followed orders of Generals Renre Barrientos and Alfredo Ovando, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, reminds the source.

Che did not even close his eyes after he died to be able to accuse his assassin that resorted to alcohol to fulfill the order.

He told the media later that he shook like a leaf before that man whom at the moment he saw “big, very big, huge,” reads the page.

Wounded and unarmed, Che Guevara had the courage his assassin lacked to open his worn-out green-olive shirt, to show his chest and shout: Stop shaking and shoot here, that you are going to kill a man, he reminds.

“Now an old man, he will be able to see the colors of the sky and the forest again, enjoy t e smile of his grand children and watch soccer matches.”

The feature concludes that four decades after Mario Teran tried to destroy a dream and ideals with his crime, Che wins another combat and continues in campaign.

<http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B7A720744-2A35-449E-84A7-0EFEF943AB1E%7D)&language=EN>

Fears for Democracy in India

 

By MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM

On February 27, 2002, the Sabarmati express train arrived in the station of Godhra, in the state of Gujarat, bearing a large group of Hindu pilgrims who were returning from a trip to the purported birthplace of the god Rama at Ayodhya (where, some years earlier, angry Hindu mobs had destroyed the Babri mosque, which they claimed was on top of the remains of Rama’s birthplace). The pilgrimage, like many others in recent times, aimed at forcibly constructing a temple over the disputed site, and the mood of the returning passengers, frustrated in their aims by the government and the courts, was angrily emotional. When the train stopped at the station, the Hindu passengers got into arguments with Muslim passengers and vendors. At least one Muslim vendor was beaten up when he refused to say Jai Sri Ram (”Hail Rama”). As the train left the station, stones were thrown at it, apparently by Muslims.

From Revolution to Dilution: Uruguay’s Frente Amplio

(Taken from Zmag)

Written by Michael Fox

 

How one of Latin America’s most radical progressive coalitions finally achieved their country’s presidency, and how those at the helm are now turning their backs on their radical base.

Jose Luis Rodriguez, 62, awoke at the same time as usual on Sunday, Oct. 31st, 2004. But this was no normal Sunday for Jose Luis. It was the day he had waited for his entire adult life; the day his dream and the dreams of hundreds of thousands of Uruguayans would be realized. The day the left would finally come to power in his native country of Uruguay.

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