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The Inquiry: Cuba: What Would Che Say?

Cuba: What Would Che Say?

07/04/2015

BBC World Service - The Inquiry, Cuba: What Would Che Say?

Are warmer relations with the US a betrayal of Cuba’s revolutionary past?

Che Guevara became a global icon after overthrowing an American-backed government in Cuba. Do warmer relations between the two countries mean his legacy is being betrayed?

Ahead of a historic meeting between Cuba’s President Castro and US President Obama, The Inquiry asks if the island nation’s warmer relations with America are a betrayal of its revolutionary past. More than half a century ago, Che Guevara became a global icon after he fought alongside Fidel and Raul Castro to overthrow an American-backed government and put into practice their socialist ideals. Now Raul Castro has made a deal with the Americans and the lifting of the long-standing economic embargo of Cuba is becoming a realistic prospect. We delve into Che Guevara’s past, the changes already happening in Cuba under Raul Castro and the Obama administration’s motives, to answer the question - what would Che say?

(Photo: Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the mid 1950s. Credit: Getty Images)

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