Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Putting the ‘terror’ back in terrorist …

(IBD)

Culture: One of the most positive side effects of Colombia’s rescue of 15 hostages from FARC communist terrorists was in dispelling the myth of revolutionary Che Guevara as a romantic hero.

Che, after all, was with the bad guys last week. The Colombian soldiers who freed the hostages wore Che T-shirts to convince the FARC they were fellow terrorists, and it actually worked. Within minutes, the hostages were handed over.

“They were wearing Che Guevara shirts, and I thought: It’s the FARC!” said former hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Her disappointment turned to joy when the disguised men announced, “We are the Colombian army. You are free!”

Colombia’s flawless rescue was one of the most awe-inspiring victories over terror in history, one that will be studied, celebrated and immortalized in books and films. All that will be forthcoming.

What’s important now is that Betancourt may have taken down all the haloed glory of Che by telling the world about the T-shirts, making Che a detail too important to leave out of any Hollywood reenactment.

That will be a first step toward ending the myth that Che was some sort of hero.

In reality FARC is Che in action. No group has more right to claim the Guevara legacy than these jungle terrorists who actually have been at it since the days of Che.

The origins of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia date back to 1964. That was the year Guevara and his communists were plotting with the Weather Underground-affiliated Black Liberation Army to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument in the first attempted 9/11-style attack on the U.S., according to Humberto Fontova, author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.”

FARC engages in the same guerrilla warfare, summary executions, sadistic disregard for life and opposition to democracy that the real Che Guevara did, until he was shot trying to bring a FARC-like war to Bolivia in 1967.

The only significant difference according to Fontova is that, unlike Guevara, FARC’s guerrillas have been competent. “Che couldn’t hold a candle to Raul Reyes,” Fontova said, referring to the FARC kingpin killed in a March 1 Colombian army raid.

FARC’s program to establish a communist state mimics what Che, Fidel Castro and the other brutal thugs of the Cuban Revolution did in 1959.

Castro, of course, knows this very well. He “confected the image of Guevara as ‘heroic guerrilla fighter’ that was dutifully spread by the Western media, after Che was safely sleeping with the fishes,” Fontova said. “A dead Che was much more useful to Castro than a live one.”

But a live FARC is another story. Castro has been godfather to FARC from the start, giving its terrorists asylum, office space, medical care, and rest and recreation over the years as they rained war on Colombia. His material support for FARC is a big reason why Cuba remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror.

The truth about Che can’t come soon enough. Mesmerized by his handsome visage photographed by Alberto Korda in 1960 — the one that emblazoned the T-shirts — Hollywood has depicted Guevara as some sort of free spirit.

At least three Che movies have been made in recent years, starring top actors such as Gael Garcia Bernal, Benicio del Toro and Omar Sharif. All distort history by making Che a hero in a way FARC’s new spotlight on him does not.

Now, with the tide shifting in the wake of the Colombian rescue, can anyone still wear a Che T-shirt in good conscience? Can glorifying a murderer whose living legacy is FARC be considered decent?

In reality, the real hero is not Che, but those in the Colombian army. Even Castro seems to realize this, having uncharacteristically claimed he’s now against FARC’s kidnappings. He made no such claim, however, when FARC was winning.

With FARC on the ropes, Castro is trying to save his own skin by dissociating himself from the group’s atrocities. He expects everyone to forget the Cuban example from which FARC took its inspiration. But after spending so much time and effort turning Che into a hero, Castro is unlikely to succeed.

Betancourt’s comments, coming from a politician on the left, about Che’s association with terrorists at a pivotal point in the rescue are too damning. She made it clear that Che’s image belongs with terrorists, not heroes.