Showing posts with label bolivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bolivia. Show all posts

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Viva Che Fifty-Three Years Later

Like every other human born on this planet, Che Guevera began his life as a child. His bloodline was partially Irish and his last name was Lynch. His father laster stated that the blood of Irish rebels ran in his son's veins.

His youth devoted to education and according to Wikipedia the CIA considered the Argentinean a deep intellectual for a Latino.

Three separate tours of Latin America in 1948, 1950, and 1951 radicalized the young medical student and he vowed to fight oppression. The 1954 CIA-led coup d'etat against the Arbenz government in Guatemala convinced Che that only armed resistance could combat the power of the dictators and the USA. He fled with his name of a death list.

Mexico was a safe haven for revolutionaries.

He married and traveled without fear.

Che also met up with his old Cuban comrades.

Fidel Castro led the anti-Batista 26th of July Movement.

Their 1956 invasion of Cuba was a disaster. Most of the rebels were captured after landing and either killed or executed. The rest escaped into the mountains.

The Revolution didn't die.

Che and Fidel were a good team.

Fidel was a pitcher.

Che was not a sportsman.

He was a gun-carrying revolutionary.

Same as Fidel.

Dedicated to freedom.

On January 1, 1959 the bearded ones triumphed over the Batista regime and the dictator fled the island with over $300,000,000 from his corruption scams.

Over the next decade Cuba became of beacon of Marxist resistance against the Yankee empire. Che wanted to spread the revolution to other shores. He failed miserably in Africa and set his sights on Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America.

La Paz the capitol was 12,000 feet above sea level.

Only the Quechans lived higher than inhabitants of sky-hgh city.

Life was hell for the workers and poor.

Life was hand to mouth.

Children rarely lived past 10.

In November of 1966 Che said good-bye to his second wife and children.

His first loves had always been the people and 'la luta'.

His eleven months in Bolivia were a bigger failure than the Congo. The peasants informed on their 'saviour' and on the morning of October 8 the world's leadng revolutionary was captured by the Bolivian Army in the Yuro Ravine close to Sucre.

Twice wounded in a gun battle against overwhelming forces, he threw down his shattered weapon and declared,"Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead."

The Bolivian Army had no respect for 'banditos'.

Che was taken to a small impoverished village, La Higuera, where Gary Prado, the Bolivian captain in command of the army company, ordered his execution.

When asked if he was thinking about his immortality, Che replied, ""No, I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution."

In the late morning of October 9, 1967 a drunk sergeant shot the guerrilla leader three times.

Thus creating a legend.

And some think a saint.

October 9, 1967.

Fifty years ago.

La Revolucion siempre.

Monday, March 7, 2016

The Worst Road In The World

The North Yungas Road in Bolivia has been touted as the world's most dangerous road.

Paraguayan war prisoners cut the dirt track into jungle cliff in the 1930s.

Over two-hundred motorists died on the road in 2006.

According to Wikipedia the South Yungas Road connecting La Paz to Chulumani, 64 kilometres (40 mi) east of La Paz is considered to be nearly as dangerous as the North Road and you can see why by going to the following URL;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeOqAVVHTKE

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Free The Coca Leaf

Several years ago I was invited to the Bolivian Consulate in New York. The gatherings were to promote the new president's vision of Pan-Americanism and one of the main tenets was the legalization of coca leaves. I had chewed the aklaloid leaves in Peru to combat high-altitude sickness in the Andes and both my mistress Mrs. Carolina and I found the medicine very therapheutic while treking on the Incan Path, so I was pleasantly surprised to find bowls of coca leaves at the consulate. I stuck a chaw in my cheek to experience the effects of the Andean plant. The pain in my knee was gone and the weariness of a long day on 47th Street ebbed with each extra leaf. The diplomats extolled the vitues of coca leafs to battle hunger and thirst as well as the alleviation of pain from headaches, rheumatism, wounds and sores. As a tea coca provides essential minerals (calcium, potassium, phosphorus), vitamins (B1, B2, C, and E) and nutrients such as protein and fiber according to Wikipedia, however coca leaves have been demonized in the West starting with Coca Cola's monopoly on selling the medicine to the masses, however the Deep South worried that "negro cocaine fiends" were raping white women and replaced coca with caffiene and sugar. Coke is still in Coca Cola, but without any medical benefit to the consumer. It's time to free the leaf. It's good for you same as Guinness.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Morte A Coca Cola

Coca-Cola is the world's most famous brand. Its sodas are sold in more than 200 countries and the corporation is a big sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics, but this week Bolivia announced that Coa-Cola will not be available after the end of the Mayan calendar. “December 21 of 2012 will be the end of egoism and division. December 21 should be the end of Coca-Cola,” said Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca and added, “The planets will align for the first time in 26,000 years and this is the end of capitalism and the beginning of communitarianism." Bolivia doesn't have a McDonald's, since the fast food chain had failed to operate in the red for ten years. I stopped drinking Coca-Cola years ago, which only hurts when I want a Cuba Libre, so I'm in accord with Bolivian President Evo Morales' rejection of the global giant. As for his plans to legalize coca leaf consumption. It really is the pause that refreshes.