The Liberal candidate for Kootenay––Columbia in British Columbia praised Cuban guerilla Che Guevera during a debate.
A video of the October 3rd all-candidates meeting shows Robin Goldsbury lauding the efforts of Che Guevera during a statement to the audience.
“When we look at the system Che Guevera introduced, which was quite fascinating, because it takes care of children from conception and makes sure they are taken care of right through their education. And personally this is one of the reasons I’m here, it’s for the kids,” said Goldsbury.
Guevera was a communist revolutionary who oversaw the mass executions and arrests of Cubans alongside fellow guerilla Fidel Castro. He presided over murder squads targetting political opponents and also set up brutal labour camps throughout the country where thousands were jailed.
In 1959 while he oversaw operations at La Cabana Fortress, he oversaw the murder of 151 Cubans as judge and sometimes as executioner. It is believed that even children met a grisly end under his watch. Along with the Castro brothers, Guevera believed that violence was key to forwarding his political goal for revolution.
“We executed many people by firing squad without knowing if they were fully guilty. At times, the Revolution cannot stop to conduct much investigation,” Guevera was quoted as saying about his brutality.
Furthermore, five years later in 1964 while in New York for a United Nations summit, Guevera stood by his cold-blooded tactics admitting to the executions.
“Executions, yes we have executed, we are executing and we will continue to execute as long as necessary,” Guevera told UN members.
During the same year, Guevera advocated for the repression of the media and freedom of speech which he saw as an opponent to the dictatorship he helped implement, saying he intended to “eliminate all newspapers” and that his vision for society was not compatible with a “free press”.
If Guevera had been afforded more power, he even expressed intentions of using nuclear weapons against innocent civilians in the United States. In 1967, while speaking of the Cuban Missile Crisis which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, Guevera declared he would have launched nuclear missiles at the U.S., had the weapons been in his control.
Throughout his life, Guevera sympathized and solicited the aid of brutal dictators. In 1960, he had a friendly meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung.
With regard to the personal beliefs expressed, Guevera was extremely racist and homophobic. When he was 24, Guevera penned racist sentiments in his diaries which were later published.
In another instance he had this to say about black Cubans: “We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.”
During the revolution, homosexuals were barred from participating in the army and were forced into work camps where they were treated as “undesirables”. Guevera’s views are believed to have widely contributed to the repression of LGBT rights in the country
Guevera was killed pleading for his life after unsuccessfully trying to spread his violent revolution around the world in Congo and finally in Bolivia, where he was captured and shot.
