Guevara children denounce Che branding

Che Guevara is an icon of the 20th century whose brand has turned into a worldwide marketing phenomenon.

The fact that Guevara was a communist guerrilla and Marxist ideologue is an irony of little interest to his capitalist exploiters. It has, however, become a problem for his children. Aleida Guevara this week denounced the commercialisation of her father's image as an affront to his socialist ideals.

Aleida, 47, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, complained of the inappropriate usage of her father's image  during an internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of what would have been her father's 80th birthday on June 14.

The famous image portrait was based on an image taken by the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in Havana in 1960. It was pinned to his studio wall for seven years until the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli mass produced it around the time of Guevara's death.

Korda willingly forfeited royalties but he sued a British advertising agency for using the photo to promote vodka.

Cuba's government has used the image to promote its revolution and to rake in tourist dollars through state-run stores which sell Che paraphernalia.