By Nico Rahim

The image of Che Guevara has done more for capitalism in the 40 years since his death than his actions and words did for socialism during his life.  While alive he was daring, idealistic, and charismatic.  He sought to unite an entire continent under the imagined equality of socialism.  If he had lived longer he might have been successful, and if strong enough, the totalitarian versions of Soviet, Chinese, and even Cuban communism could have been overcome.  But we will leave that to speculation.

The image of Che Guevara is now very much a capitalist icon.  T-shirts and other swag with his image are sold around the world, on the streets of San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, and Tokyo.  The image of Che creates space for the pseudo-revolutionaries throughout the capitalist world to vent their frustrations within a contained and safe outlet for radicalism.  

In Latin America and elsewhere in the world the image of Che still carries a great deal of power.  Notice the picture to the left; the image of Che is painted on the embankment of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  This was not done out of any other motive than a political one.  No one is profiting in a monetary sense from the painting of Che’s face on a concrete embankment facing the US from across the now pitiful Rio Grande. 

In Latin America the image of Che Guevara is an image of Latino solidarity, of not compromising national and culture interests for the interests of corporations from the North.  The idea of socialism as Guevara saw it has long since died, but his ideas of a powerful Latin America based on a powerful working class has not.  Under the IMF and World Bank packages Latin America now finds itself enchained under, not to mention the free trade agreements the US bullies Latin American countries into, Latin America will only find itself further subjected to the imperialistic will of the United States through economic (thus political) forces.

In early November 2005, at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, a crowd of thousands carried yellow banners with the green-lithographed image of Che’s face.  These were not communist revolutionaries (at least not most of them); they were Argentineans and other Latinos who sought to rid themselves of the imperialist policy of the United States.  These pictures actually made their way to the cover of The New York Times, but soon after were forgotten, as another headline lost in the clutter of the mass media’s agenda.   

Hugo Chávez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela, whose tenure has withstood a US-back coup, is a great contemporary example of how thwarting the will of the Washington Consensus is actually beneficial for a nation.  Chávez has neither flaunted nor exploited the image of Che to help define his own.  Rather, he has aligned himself symbolically to the image, symbolically to say through law and discourse.  I want to be careful not to blindly support the cult of personality Chávez has created for himself, but I tend to agree with most of his words and actions to this point.  Chávez is a champion of his nation’s poor and working class using oil revenue to fund healthcare, education, and food.  This has brought newfound hope and sense of community to historically impoverished and crime-ridden barrios surrounding the capital of Caracas and other areas.  While all do not love him, being despised by many of the nations business leaders (interestingly enough Venezuela’s economy has never been better), he has not impinged on the freedom of dissenters. 

With this he seems to be overcoming many of the totalitarian shortcomings of his ally and idol, Fidel Castro.  Chávez is infamous for his anti-American stances, but it is not so much that he is anti-American; more that he is pro-worker and has a socially focused development strategy, something Washington’s staunch neoliberals will not accept. 

On September 16, 2005 Hugo Chávez said, “I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion… the US is carrying out maneuvers on Curacao Island. It is called Operation Balboa.”  Many speculate that after Iran the next country on the United State’s imperial hit list is Venezuela.

The Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar said in 1819, “The USA appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.”  This comment was in response to the Monroe Doctrine, in which the US proclaimed its dominance over the entire Western Hemisphere.  Looking at Latin American history throughout the twentieth century it is clear that US policy to liberalize Latin American economies has been a plague on Latin American economic and social development.

Latin America is moving to the left and using the image of Che as a symbol of solidarity.  One of the first actions taken by the Evo Morales, the recently elected president of Bolivia, was to install a large portrait of Che Guevara in his presidential suite.

In the global north the image of Che Guevara is very much a friend of the status quo economy.  Throughout America, Canada, and Europe the image of Che Guevara is worth only as much as the price tag reads, but in Latin America it has yet to lose its symbolic worth.  Then again, all this is coming from a gringo who grew up in New England.

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