The BBC keeping the Che myth alive

What is it with the BBC's fascination with Che Guevara's friends? Since May, the BBC has done three profiles on three different people each of whose sole claim to anything remotely resembling a point of interest is a past connection to the "revolutionary".

In May, BBC 2 did a documentary giving voice to a fawning look at Guevara through the eyes of, Alberto Granado, Guevara's companion on his early escapades in South America on a motorcycle.

Then in December, Mark Doyle did a piece on Freddy Ilanga, a former Congolese rebel and now surgeon who was Guevara's interpreter during his failed attempt to foment revolt in the DR Congo. Needless to say, Ilanga also admired the "hard-working" Guevara, perhaps even as much as Doyle, who had discovered Ilanga while "following in the footsteps" of Guevara.

Now, today, Deborah Bonello offers up one more feature on yet another FOC, Carlos Ferrer, who has decided to cash in on his association with a book about his time with Guevara. Like the others, Ferrer greatly admires Guevara, while Bonello upgrades him from a mere "revolutionary" to a "now legendary revlutionary".

By the way, none of these tributes to Guevara manage to mention his slightly less romantic role as Castro's chief executioner of political dissenters from the Cuban "revolution". Perhaps some day the BBC might get around to doing stories about Guevara's many victims rather than his acolytes. But, given that the BBC itself seems to be one, don't hold your breath.