Barnes and Nobles has discretion in selecting the works it offers its patrons. It  does not sell volumes that justify, much less glorify, Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and other leaders of murdering regimes known for their passionate ideologies. It does not offer works legitimizing radical beliefs such as white supremacy or Islamic jihad. It should apply the same standards in selecting works to commercialize on Che Guevara. 

Barnes and Nobles should stop commercializing the book Che, a revolutionary icon (New York: Charwell Books, 2018). It glorifies Che Guevara with cherry-picked facts, glaring omissions, and glossy photos while ignoring his crimes and fervent efforts to spread Communist dictatorship through killings and violence. The long list of Che’s documented transgressions missing from the book includes hundreds of executions without fair trial that he gloated publicly about, his leadership in destroying the economy, free press, and individual freedoms to install a totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba, his support for nuking the US during the missile crisis, and his active work to overthrow democratic regimes through armed intervention.

The romanticized view of Che Guevara lacks grounding in historical facts and is insensitive to Guevara’s many victims. It justifies violence to spread a revolutionary ideology and it has real consequences, as our Venezuelan brothers and sisters and the long-suffering people of Cuba can attest.