Brave Benicio ran away.
Bravely ran away, away.
When danger rears it’s ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes Brave Benicio turned about
He gallantly chickened out.
“It took seven years to do the research,” Benicio told Stephen Colbert about the movie on Che, the mansion-living, Rolex-wearing “revolutionary”. Here’s the kind of research they did:
The screenplay was based on Che Guevara’s diaries which were published by Cuba’s propaganda ministry with the forward written by Fidel Castro himself. The film includes several Communist Cuban actors and the other Latin American actors spent months in Cuba being prepped for their roles by members of Cuba’s “Che Guevara Institute.”
A proclamation from Castro’s own press dated 12/7/08 actually boasts of their role: “Actor Benicio del Toro presented the film (at Havana’s Karl Marx Theater) as he thanked the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) for its assistance during the shooting of the film, which was the result of a seven-year research work in Cuba.” The Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) is an arm of Stalinist Cuba’s propaganda ministry.
Last month Benicio went on TV and was interviewed by young & sweet Marlen González of channel 41 Miami, who burst Benicio’s propaganda piñata like a bunch of third graders at a birthday party (interview in Spanish). Babalu Blog comments:
[She] asked him point blank why the “real che” was not shown. Del Toro simply could not answer and became visibly agitated, squirming and asking for a quote to be repeated. She came right out and asked him if che was an assassin. Del Burro did not miss a beat and said “No.” Other gems- he doesn’t think that all Cubans feel the same way about che, his answer to a comparison of Hitler with che was that he did not have concentration camps like Hitler but he did believe in the death penalty. El tartamudo said that the people che killed were terrorists of the Batista government and when Marlen said that 90% of those people were actually prisoners of conscience who opposed castro’s regime, he said he did not know that and asked her where she got that information. She said it was historically documented and in Argentina, too. Later, she handed him a copy of “Guevara, Misionero de la Violencia” by Pedro Corzo!
After THAT kind of reality check, Benicio has now become “brave”, and walked out of an interview when Sonny Bunch asked him uncomfortable questions about Che while snacking on guacamole:
“I’m getting uncomfortable,” Benicio del Toro said after fielding a question about his new movie’s portrayal of the Bolivian and Cuban revolutions. “I’m done. I’m done, I hope you write whatever you want. I don’t give a damn.”
With that, the Oscar-winning actor walked away, abruptly terminating an interview conducted late last week to discuss director Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.”
But before walking off on Sonny and the guacamole Benicio defined capital punishment,
“They didn’t do it blindly; they had trials,” Mr. del Toro said. “They found them guilty, and they executed them – that’s capital punishment.”
Which of course is OK… as long as it’s Che & the Cuban Communists doing it. Too bad Benicio didn’t have time to read Che’s own words.
If, having made this movie Del Toro, Soderbergh, and everyone involved in this film can’t face the facts about Che, they have earned our scorn. Let them run.
If you have a chance,
Listen to what Humberto Fontova had to say about Che in my podcast three weeks ago.
UPDATE
Castro Betrayed Che With Moscow’s Help, Says Former Guerrilla
ROME — Former Cuban guerrilla Daniel Alarcon Ramirez accused the communist island’s leader, Fidel Castro, of “betraying” Ernesto “Che” Guevara on the orders of Moscow, which considered him “a very dangerous personality for their imperialist strategies.”
Alarcon Ramirez, known as “Benigno,” told Corriere della Sera that Che’s death “was due to a machination for which Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union are responsible.”
Benigno is one of the three guerrillas in Che’s band who after their leader’s execution on Oct. 8, 1967, in Bolivia managed to elude pursuit by Bolivian troops and escape to Chile.
“The Soviets considered Che to be a very dangerous personality for their imperialist strategies and Fidel yielded for reasons of state, given that Cuba’s survival depended on the help of Moscow. And he eliminated a comrade … Che was the leader most loved by the people,” he said.
Benigno said that Che and his outfit of guerrillas wanted to export the Cuban Revolution to other nations, but they were abandoned in the Bolivian jungle.
“Che went to meet his death knowing that he had been betrayed,” Benigno said.
