>Guerilla warfare revolves around logistics and Che relied almost entirely on the support of the local population rather than supply lines from foreigner supporters as was the case in Vietnam. This is not Che's fatal flaw however, focoismo is a competent strategy because even though total victory is unlikely it does give the movement political negotiating power and after decades of stalemate the hardline elements of the government will lose popularity.
Oh, indeed, focoismo relied on the people to a certain extent, but it didn't do what, say, the Bolsheviks did in Russia or the CCP in China, where Soviets/People's Committees would be set up and didn't enact land reform, establish people's militias... things that are necessary to truly establish ties among the masses. These things are why the Maoists in Nepal, India, and the Philippines have been so successful in the past 10-15 years.
To see how a people's army should really establish links among the masses, check out Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton, or Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China.
>The problem lies with his political ideology. Communism has no safeguards to prevent corruption amongst the ranks, any thug who finds himself in a position of authority can abuse his power because his followers are not willing to risk their lives to preserve their liberty, even if they are willing to do so for "equality". In Vietnam the guerillas had nationalism to counter their barbaric behaviour, Che had nothing, he was the foreigner, he was little more than a literate bandit.
Socialism comes into existence with the weight of tradition and with the "birthmarks of the old society" still within it- including within the Party and State itself (as we have obviously seen with the reversal of socialism in the USSR and China. It is a very real phenomenon that forces do emerge from within the communist party who take up a f*cked-up position of seeking to become a new ruling and exploiting clique and who attempt to put this line into practice. More specificially, within socialist society itself, there is continual emergence of people within the communist vanguard who take the capitalist road and seek to restore capitalism and bourgeois dictatorship.
However, Mao Tse-Tung said that the science of Marxism-Leninism boils down to one thing: "It's Right to Rebel Against Reactionaries!" The fact that it is right to rebel against reactionaries is quite profound- because it says it is right to attack those within the party who oppress the masses and those who wish to prevent the revolutionary transformation of society! This is the greatest thing about the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution- it was the most amazing mass upsurge in history. Research it and dig deeper it if you disagree: it was by in large a popular bottom up groundswell of political action and- contrary to the hype against the Cultural Revolution- it was not dominated by the party and in fact much of it was directed at correcting the Chinese Communist Party. Mao of course supported this.
Leading the masses to recognize the essential nature of programmes of forces which promote tyranny, oppression, and capitalist restoration- and leading them to wage revolutionary struggle against this- is a decisive question is socialist society. Further, it is crucial to lead the masses to continually revolutionize the party as a crucial aspect of revolutionizing society overall and carry forward the advance toward communism as part of the world proletarian revolution.
Anyways, I totally digressed. If you want to understand more of what I'm talking about, check out the Kasama Project @ www.kasamaproject.org/ for some food for thought.