Author says
By Michael Chapman
CNSNews.com Managing Editor
(Editor’s Note: In the first of a two-part interview, Cybercast News Service speaks to Humberto Fontova, author of the new book, “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.”)
(CNSNews.com) – Che Guevara, who aided Fidel Castro in his rise to power in Cuba in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is today an icon of liberal culture worldwide. His picture and image adorn countless products, from posters to t-shirts to CD cases to bikinis.
Robert Redford made a 2004 movie about Guevara, “The Motorcycle Diaries,” which won media praise and an Academy Award. Two more Guevara movies are due for release in 2008.
Yet the liberal-left and Hollywood are perpetuating myths, if not outright lies, about Guevara, according to author Humberto Fontova in his book, “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.”
Fontova discussed with Cybercast News Service his new book and what he describes as the real Guevara – the man who directly helped Castro put into place a communist regime responsible for at least 102,000 deaths and which has cycled 500,000 people through its gulag.
Cybercast News Service: Why did you write this book?Humberto Fontova: Because of the blizzard, the avalanche, the non-stop flood of complete B.S. that has been issuing from Castro’s Cuba and from Castro himself since February 1957, when he had his first interview with the New York Times. He has had the Western media eating out of the palm of his hand.
I’ll tell you what I told Alan Colmes, from Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes.” He said, “How can you – all of a sudden – discover all these things about Che Guevara?” And I said, “No, Alan, these things were discovered in 1959. These things were recorded as they were happening. But it’s just that they never made it into the mainstream media, not just in the United States but also worldwide.”
Cybercast News Service: Who was reporting the facts about Che Guevara in 1959 and not the propaganda?
Humberto Fontova: Cuban-Americans primarily. It was recorded a lot in Spanish newspapers. A lot of the sources for my book were Spanish-language sources – there were books and periodicals published in places such as Mexico City and Madrid. When many Cubans got to America, they learned that no major publisher would touch an anti-Castro book. Some people started their own publishing companies, but the sad part is that most of this stuff was published only in Spanish. But these things have been known since 1959.
Cybercast News Service: Who were the people in America and in the Western world praising Che Guevara and Castro?
Humberto Fontova: At the same time that Che is the chief executioner for the Cuban revolution and hundreds of bodies are being piled up every week by firing squads, we have none other than Ed Sullivan referring to Fidel Castro as the George Washington of his country. Now, Ed Sullivan made amends later. He is one of the few who actually retracted his comment. But we had Harry Truman saying Castro was doing what was best for Cuba – quote “we ought to extend our sympathy and help him to do what is right for them.” We had CBS’s Edward R. Murrow. Look at the movie “Good Night and Good Luck” – oh, Ed Murrow snarled when he got in front of Joe McCarthy. He was the grand inquisitor when he got in front of a right-winger. Well, Murrow actually went to Havana to interview Castro, and he complimented his dog, “That’s a cute puppy, little Fidelita!” In that interview, he got no further than some talk about Castro’s son – who Castro never took care of and abandoned – and his “little puppy.” That’s the type of investigative journalism we’ve come to expect when investigating things in Cuba.
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