patria o muerte, venceremos!

There's been a bit of controversy in military circles in Bolivia during the last few days over Evo's order to make the socialist chant "patria o muerte, venceremos" (homeland or death, we will triumph) an official military slogan. That's right, the army that famously captured and executed Che Guevara will now be required to chant a slogan traditionally associated with the deceased guerrilla. Oh the Irony.

But this rebranding of Bolivia's military doesn't end there. Evo has ordered the military to confer official military honors on the wiphala, an indigenous emblem that has come to represent the new plurinational state of Bolivia. The symbolism of requiring an institution that has historically been an instrument of repression to wear an indigenous emblem and chant a slogan associated with the struggle for social justice couldn't be any clearer.

So props go out to Evo for showing the military who's boss and dishing out a bit of historical justice, no?