Vienna - The city of Vienna unveiled Europe's first monument dedicated to Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara on Thursday, as right-wing parties said a "murderer" should not be honoured in this way. The 70-centimetre tall bronze bust is a symbol of Vienna's intention to eradicate poverty, said the city's social democratic mayor Michael Haeupl, according to public broadcaster ORF.
To call Guevara a murderer is wrong, Haeupl said. "He was a human," Austrian news agency APA quoted him as saying.
The centrist conservative People's Party and the right-wing Freedom party criticized the monument sculpted by artist Gerda Fassel. It was erected in a park near the United Nations offices in Vienna.
"As far as I'm concerned, Haeupl can sleep in Che Guevara's bedclothes," said conservative politician Norbert Walter. But it was tasteless to spend public money on such a bust, he said.
At the unveiling ceremony, one Freedom Party protester held up a poster with the names of Guevara's alleged victims.
Born in Argentina, Guevara was a key figure in the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. He was executed by Bolivian soldiers in 1967.
