by Ignacio Gutierrez

Created on: August 06, 2008

"Paredn! Paredn!" (to the wall!) was a haunting chant that could be heard in movie theatres throughout Havana, Cuba in 1959 as news clips played executions by firing squads. It was the cry of the crowds calling for the death of many Batistianos, people who had worked for Fulgencio Batista, Cuba's previous dictator. Many of those executed were police and soldiers who tortured and killed those opposing Batista's regime. But some businessmen and students, whose only crime was voicing dissent against Castro's revolution, were also executed without any due process of law.

In charge of the execution squad at the San Carlos de La Cabaa prison from January to June of 1959 was Ernesto "Che" Guevara. La Cabaa was an 18th century fortress in Havana used for defense against pirates and later served as a military barracks. There are various figures on the exact number of executions ordered by Che. The History Channel has tallied it at 50. Perhaps they only took into account his busiest month considering he never overturned a decision. Others, such as Jose Vilasuso, a lawyer and a professor at Universidad Interamericana de Bayamn in Puerto Rico, who belonged to the body in charge of the summary judicial process at La Cabaa, puts the tally at 400.

For someone directly responsible for the death of so many people, it's ironic his nickname was derived from his calling those around him pal or "che". But it's no surprise that others referred to him as "The butcher of the Cabaa". But even more ironic are the amount of financially well to do New Yorkers, particularly hipsters, who proudly wear their Che shirts as if they're privy to esoteric politics that the average American is too stupid to grasp.

But the true irony is the fact that many Che supporters are people who find it morally reprehensible that the Bush administration waged a war in Iraq but are completely oblivious to the guerilla warfare Che instigated in Africa's Congo and Latin America. For those who admire Che's shunning of material wealth, possibly the ultimate irony is the fact he was wearing a Rolex at the time of his own execution in Bolivia. Viva la Revolucion!

Yet it's understandable that many young people, particularly students influenced by their lefty tenured college professors, would feel inspired by Che's social causes. After all, he volunteered his medical services at the San Pablo leper colony. For anyone who saw the movie The Motorcycle Diaries, produced by Robert Redford and based on Che's memoirs, who didn't

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