Posted on Fri, Oct. 19, 2007
BY IAN JAMES
Associated Press
A destroyed glass monument of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che"
Guevara is seen near the city of Merida, Venezuela, Friday, Oct. 19,
2007. The monument on an Andean mountain highway was unveiled Oct. 8 by
Vice President Jorge Rodriguez and Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela to
mark the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death in Bolivia.
AP
A destroyed glass monument of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che"
Guevara is seen near the city of Merida, Venezuela, Friday, Oct. 19,
2007. The monument on an Andean mountain highway was unveiled Oct. 8 by
Vice President Jorge Rodriguez and Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela to
mark the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death in Bolivia.
CARACAS --
A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara was
destroyed by gunfire less than two weeks after it was unveiled by
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's government.
Images of the toppled and shattered eight-foot-tall glass plate, which
bore an image of Guevara, were shown on state television Friday and
appeared in newspapers.
The monument on an Andean mountain highway near the city of Merida was
unveiled Oct. 8 by Vice President Jorge Rodríguez and Cuba's ambassador
to Venezuela to mark the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death in Bolivia.
Police said they had yet to identify those responsible. The El Nacional
newspaper published a copy of what it said was a flier found by the
monument signed by the previously unknown ``Páramo Patriotic Front.''
''We don't want any monument to Che, he isn't an example for our
children,'' the flier read. It called Guevara a ''cold-blooded killer''
and said the government should raise a monument in Chávez's hometown of
Sabaneta, in the nearby lowland plains, if it wants to commemorate the
Argentine revolutionary.
The mayor in the local municipality of Miranda, Jesús María Espinoza,
suggested the vandals came from elsewhere.
''We can't tolerate people from outside . . . damaging something that
was unveiled with so much happiness, with so much enthusiasm that day,''
Espinoza told state television.
The 1.5-inch-thick stele was erected near the top of El Aguila Peak, a
popular tourist spot and one of the highest points in Venezuela at
13,143 feet above sea level.
The Argentine-born Guevara visited this spot in 1952 during his travels
through South America, which he recorded in his diary, before joining
the Cuban revolutionary struggle led by Fidel Castro.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/277441.html
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