Use Me

Two of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's children said Thursday they were tired of seeing their father's image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand "embarrassing."

Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida March, said the commercialization of her father's image contributed to tension between rich and poor in some countries.

"Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing," she wrote during an Internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of what would have been her father's 80th birthday on June 14.

Guevara's children took Internet queries for two hours, fielding questions from users in Qatar, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Cuba, where both live.

Aleida Guevara was asked about the use of her father's image to sell British vodka and French soft drinks. She decried those campaigns as well one in Switzerland that uses his likeness to peddle cell phones.

"We don't want money, we demand respect," wrote Guevara, who is a trained physician like her father.

-- From the Associated Press