Humberto Fontova: When They Killed Che

"Forty two years ago this week, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall, and shot. Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served. If the saying “what goes around comes around” ever fit, it’s here.

"Consider the kind of man Che was. 'When you saw the beaming look on Che’s face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad,' a former Cuban political prisoner told this writer, 'you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara.'

"As commander of the la Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the condemned man (or boy) by firing the coup de grace himself. When other duties tore him away from his beloved execution yard, he consoled himself by viewing the slaughter. Che’s second-story office in La Cabana had a section of wall torn out so he could watch his darling firing-squads at work.

"Romanian journalist Stefan Bacie visited Cuba in early 1959 and was fortunate enough to get an audience with the already quasi-famous Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Upon entering Castro’s chief executioner’s office, Bacie noticed Che motioning him over to the office’s newly constructed window. Bacie got there just in time to hear the command of 'Fuego!' and the blast from the firing squad and to see a condemned prisoner crumple and convulse. The stricken journalist immediately left and composed a poem, titled, 'I No Longer Sing of Che.' ('I no longer sing of Che any more than I would of Stalin,' go the first lines.)"