Sir, - Mr Carlos Bettencourt Bueno, Ambassador of Brazil, (October 27th) in response to your perceptive editorial "Che Guevara`s Legacy" (October 18th), was dismissive of the "romantic Argentine's" role in Latin American history but whose memory "may always help European idealistic circles to live their their own revolutionary dreams and fantasies from a prudent distance". Guevara's observation of the overthrow of a democratic and reformist government in Guatemala in 1954 by the United States-supported right wing military was the catalyst which inspired him to seek revolutionary solutions in Latin America. The resultant killing fields of Guatemala which led to the murder of 40,000 civilians by the military were far removed from dreams and fantasies.
Mr Bettencourt Bueno defined Guevara`s methods as "unworkable solutions to the complex and challenging problems faced by Latin America" but he chose to ignore injustice and the methods of the military dictatorships which history will condemn as equally unworkable. The real enemy of Latin America remains the unequal distribution of wealth with the poorest 20 per cent receiving less than four per cent of income. The enthusiasm for market liberisation and trade agreements will not necessarily adjust this imbalance unless countries such as Brazil act more aggressively against poverty. - Yours, etc., John T. Kavanagh, Braemor Road,
Dublin 14.