For some it was sacrilege. For othersit was a fitting ending. The bulldozer that rumbled across a cobbled square in the centre of Mexico City had an unusual load perched in its front bucket: bronze effigies of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
The statues of the revolutionary figures were removed from public view last week in the latest twist in a row that has pitted the conservative mayor of the historic Cuauhtémoc borough against the left-wing president of the republic.
Since 2017the bronze images of the Cuban leader and his Argentinian-born comrade have been on display on a bench in the city’s leafy Tabacalera park. The installationcommissioned by a previous left-wing mayor of the municipality and apparently paid for with about £25,000 of public moneycommemorates the men’s first meeting 70 years ago in a nearby apartment.
It was an encounter that changed the course of history. After a conversationwhich went on for most of the nightthe pair agreed to co-operate to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Their plot succeeded and the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959caused shockwaves around the world. It eventually led to the establishment of a pro-Soviet outpost90 miles from the United States.
The artwork by Óscar Ponzanellia renowned Mexican-Italian sculptorshowed the two bearded menin combat clothesappearing relaxed. Castronotebook in handis also holding one of his then trademark cigars. Guevara is clutching a pipe.
From the day of its unveiling the display caused division. While many on the leftincluding supporters of Mexico’s current ruling Morena partysaw it as a symbol of an inspiring struggleothers lambasted it as a tasteless monument to a dictatorship.
Detractors would periodically splatter the statues with paint and those that revered Castro and Guevara would lay flowers at their boots.
Firmly of the view that the commemoration had no place in a Mexican square is Alessandra Rojo de la Vega39a fiery anti-communist who last year was elected mayor of the Cuauhtémoc borough.
Last week she instructed the display be removed. Her justification initially avoided politics. She said the main problem was that it had been installed without the necessary planning permissions.
But she has since not hidden her loathing for the men the statues depictboth of whom are accused of a catalogue of human rights abusesincluding overseeing the execution without trial of hundreds of their enemies.
“A murderer is no less a murderer just because he belongs to the left,” she told a Mexican radio station last week.
As locals ask what might happen to the valuable artworkwhich is currently in warehouse storagethe mayor’s proposal is to auction off both statueswith proceeds going to the refurbishment of local parks. She believed there would be no shortage of wealthy bidderswho she described as “closet communists” with a “cult for oppression”.
“Since you love your idols so muchnow you can take them home … but this time you must pay for it with your own moneynot that taken from the people,” she said in a post on Instagram.
Such remarks have not impressed Claudia Sheinbaumthe Mexican presidentwhose left-wing government is an important regional ally of Cuba. At her daily press conference she weighed in on the controversysaying that those who accuse the left of a cancel culture — she was criticised for permitting the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus from one of Mexico City’s main thoroughfares in 2020 — should look in the mirror.
“You can’t remove a statuea monumentjust like that,” she saidaccusing the mayor of being “tremendously intolerant”.
She also pointed out that de la Vega appeared “hypocritical”given photographs published online revealed the firebrand had been to Havana on holiday. De la Vega said the trip was ten years ago when “she did not understand politics”.
Sheinbaum has since insisted that the Che-Fidel encounter recalled “a historic moment” and merited a public display.
The men met in 1955 after being introduced by Castro’s younger brotherRaúl. The elder Castrothen 28had just been released from a Cuban prison after leading a failed attack two years before against Batista’s army. He had moved to Mexicointent on planning further revolutionary activities.
Guevarathen 27a doctor from an affluent Buenos Aires familyhad been travelling through Latin America by motorcyclea journey that had only reinforced his Marxist ideas.
The meetingin the home of a Cuban exileconcluded with Guevara agreeing to join Castro’s movementserving as a doctor and a fighter. In November the following year they set sail for Cuba with 80 other men aboard an old cabin cruiser called “Granma”. Most of those in the ragtag group were killed shortly after landing on the island.
Historians have said that the Castro-Guevara partnership was key to the armed revolution’s unexpected successwith the Argentinian’s ideological clarity and guerilla warfare instincts complementing Castro’s gift for leadership.
“They were loud talkers,” recalled Guadalupe Rojasa neighbourin an interview with NPR in 2018. “My mother-in-law lived in the apartment above and she’d tell me how ‘those Cubans’ would be up for hours.” Castro would later become renowned for deliveringin 1960the longest ever speech in the history of the United Nationslasting four hours and 29 minutes.
The end of the partnership between Castro and Guevara has long been the subject of debate. By the mid-1960sthere was evidence they were disagreeing. One source of contention was the idealistic Argentinian becoming disillusioned with the Soviet Union’s economic policieswhich he saw as too capitalistwhile Castro was careful to avoid any public criticism of his benefactor.
In 1966 Guevaraencouraged by Castroset off for Boliviawhere he attempted to foment a revolution. Underfunded and undersuppliedthe mission was a disaster. In October 1967 he was captured and executed. Two decades later Jaime Niño de Guzmana Bolivian army officer who was with Guevara the day before he diedsaid his captive told himseveral times“Fidel betrayed me”.
Castro died in 2016aged 90. He had outlasted ten US presidents. His revolution is still seen as inspirational by many around the worldbut much of his islanda one-party stateis in economic ruin.
Perhaps aware that effigies of politicians can eventually attract as much opprobrium as adorationone of his final wisheswhich was enacted into law after his deathwas that no statue depicting him should ever be erected in Cuba.
