65 years of blockade, 58 years without Che – The struggle continues!
Dear comrades!
Friends of Cuba!
Before talking about the big political connections, I want to tell you a very personal story: the story of my first encounter with Che Guevara and my recent trip following in his footsteps through Latin America.
I was 16 years old and, like many young people in puberty, I wanted to rebel against the order of school and society. At first, I did so in a very superficial way: long hair, loud music, and smoking my first cigarettes. By chance, I discovered a red and black T-shirt in my older brother's closet with the face of a rebellious man on the front and a defiant phrase on the back: “Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me.” It seemed appropriate enough to wear it almost every day to school.
To my disappointment, the teachers ignored my ‘revolutionary disguise’ until one day when my progressive English teacher asked me if I knew who the man on my T-shirt was. I said no. My teacher smiled and revealed that it was the famous image of Che, Guerrillero Heroico. As a ‘small punishment’, which later turned out to be a great reward, she assigned me the task of giving a presentation on the man on the T-shirt in two weeks. That's how I met Ernesto Guevara de la Serna de Rosario, and that encounter changed my life.
Decades later, that encounter led me to Latin America—following in the footsteps of the young Che. A few months ago, I was in Argentina and was able to visit the places that shaped the man who would later change the world. From Caraguatay in the province of Misiones, where his rebellious parents Celia de la Serna and Ernesto Rafael Guevara Lynch built their first home together in 1928, to Rosario, where Ernestito was born on June 14, 1928, to Alta Gracia near Córdoba, where the young Che spent much of his childhood and youth, after suffering his first asthma attack at the age of two.
I consider myself fortunate to have also learned, through Che, about the history of the Cuban revolution and the idea of socialism. My superficial rebellion thus transformed into a deep understanding of humanity's need to fight for freedom and justice.
Although raised in a middle-class home without hardship in Argentina, Ernesto Che Guevara recognized from a young age the injustices that existed in the world—especially in Latin America—and that still exist today. The experiences he gathered during his travels throughout South America filled him with a revolutionary consciousness that he demonstrated time and again in his later years.
He left posterity with this phrase: “Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone anywhere in the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.”
These words have taken on a terrifying relevance today, 58 years after his death. Because the injustice that Che denounced then has been transformed into a systematic aggression that for 65 years has been directed against an entire people: the US blockade against Cuba, in violation of international law—the longest of its kind in human history.
Today, in the year 2025, we see Latin America under attack once again. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 is experiencing an aggressive revival. A massive US military presence in the Caribbean—with aircraft carriers, destroyers, and even nuclear submarines—threatens Venezuela and the entire region. What the 33 member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) have declared a zone of peace is being deliberately torpedoed by Washington. The spirit of Che, who once fought for the liberation of all Latin America, is needed today more than ever!
Today we are experiencing how this oppression takes concrete and cruel forms: More than 80 percent of all Cubans have lived under the pressure of the US blockade since birth. Children go blind because vital medicines are lacking. Cancer patients die because chemotherapy is blocked. Every day Cuba loses more than US$20 million because of the blockade – money that is urgently needed for food, fuel, and medicine.
And yet – and this would have filled Che with pride – the Cuban people refuse to be broken! While the United States slanders Cuba as a “terrorist state,” the island sends its “army of white coats” all over the world. More than 3,700 Cuban doctors helped during the COVID-19 pandemic in 39 countries. From Ebola in West Africa to COVID-19 in Europe – Cuban medical brigades save lives around the world and thus embody Che's internationalism in its purest form.
“Let's be realistic and do the impossible.” – This is probably one of the most famous quotes attributed to Ernesto Che Guevara. What he means by this is that we must never tire of fighting for a just world. No matter where! No matter how hopeless it may seem!
Che Guevara was and is a symbol of youth standing up against prevailing injustice, and a symbol of a struggle that will not end as long as exploitation and oppression exist in this world.
Today, 58 years after his death, his legacy is more alive than ever. Because his spirit lives on in Cuba—in a people who, despite all adversities, do not capitulate, who send doctors instead of soldiers around the world, and who “share what they have, instead of giving what they have left over.”
For this and many other reasons, we stand in solidarity with Cuba and say loudly:
Enough of 65 years of blockade!
Let's be like CHE!
Hasta la victoria siempre!