Che has become a commodity of western consumers in search of cool. Nowadays it spells less Marxist revolution and more fashion chic - or fashion tat.Toddlers in Knightsbridge wearing "Che" shirts will have no clue who he was, but nor do many of the adults happily buying into Che-mania They just like to be part of what they think he represents. (Che was a teetotaler.) Consequently, the image has been expropriated by everyone from Madonna - it was the cover of her album American Life - to an ice-cream company in Australia, to makers of tacky mugs and fridge magnets. The black and white portrait was thus transformed into a Pop Art icon, with help also from Andy Warhol, who reproduced it with the same graphic processes he used on Marilyn Monroe.Korda could have exerted copyright control over the image, but only did so shortly before his death in 2001, when he sued to prevent a vodka company using it as a marketing tool. Guevara has since been rehabilitated by Castro, once again he is a hero and father of the revolution.

Yes, but who wants to wear his T-shirt? Actually, I purchased one at Havana airport on a recent visit. Most times, what you see is actually the high-contrast stylised version of the photograph drawn by the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick. If there was such a parting of ways, it may be that Castro began to resent his friend's burgeoning popularity.Guevara was later to be found attempting to repeat his socialist revolution elsewhere in the world, first in Congo and then in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed in 1967. A hero of the revolution, Guevara became Castro's No 2, overseeing the execution of Batista loyalists and later running the industry ministry. Che disappeared from view in 1965, spurring speculation - never entirely settled - of a rift with Castro. In Guatemala, in 1954, he witnessed the overthrow of the leftist government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzm?in a coup orchestrated by the CIA; some time later he joined a band of Cuban exiles in Mexico City committed to overthrowing the corrupt, American-friendly regime of Fulgencio Batista.With Fidel Castro at its helm, the exiles returned to Cuba and eventually succeeded in an armed revolution that ousted Batista on 1 January 1959. First adopted as the standard of protesting students in 1968, and espoused by successive generations, its potency as a symbol of leftist rebellion and a statement of non-conformity never dies. How did he become a symbol of revolutionary zeal? Born in Argentina in June 1928, Ernest Guevara studied to be a doctor, but lost interest in his putative career after travelling throughout Latin America and concluding that armed revolution was the only solution to the continent's cruel social inequities.

Mr Garcia beat Ollanta Humala, a radical former army officer supported by Mr Chavez who was preaching a similar brand of nationalism, by 53 per cent to 46 per cent in a second-round runoff, according to the latest official results.. Why is the V&A dedicating an exhibition to a photograph of Che? Maybe it's because of the famous picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, snapped by Alberto Korda, later to become Fidel Castro's personal photographer, during a memorial service in Cuba in 1960 (though first published seven years later), is said to be the most reproduced image of all time. Eppolito has said he plans to appeal the conviction on the grounds that his defence lawyer was incompetent. He is asking for a retrial in which his new lawyers would call Gaspipe Casso to the stand. Moreover, legal experts say there may be grounds for appeal because of statute of limitation concerns..

Peru's Alan Garcia has completed a remarkable political comeback with his victory in Sunday's presidential election, thwarting Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's bid to extend his reach in the region and overcoming the legacy of economic collapse, rebel violence and corruption that turned his 1985-1990 government into a disaster. "I don't know which crime was more monstrous, the actual murder or the concealment of his body."The episode of the so-called "Mafia Cops" may not yet be over. Judge Jack Weinstein imposed the sentences after receiving written submissions from some of the families of the victims, including Michael Greenwald Weinstein, whose father was a jewel merchant near Times Square when he suddenly vanished 1986. Israel Weinstein's body was buried under concrete and not uncovered for 19 years."Losing a father at a young age is hard enough, but to lose a father in such a violent and mysterious way is nothing short of horrific," Judge Weinstein said. Prosecutors said at the trial that they carried out three of the assassinations personally and facilitated the other five.The men often used their police cruisers as a cover to pick up targets for assassination.

A corpse of one of their victims was found stuffed in a car boot with a dead canary in his mouth.The federal prosecutor in the case, Daniel Wenner, said yesterday that it represented "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge the city has ever seen". Caracappa had helped the New York Police Department set up its Mafia crime-fighting unit shortly before retiring in 1992. Eppolito, meanwhile, had never hidden the fact that his father had been a member of the Gambino crime clan. He even wrote a book about becoming an "honest cop" in a crooked family,Mafia Cop.Eppolito also had a bit part in the mob film Goodfellas and had hopes of parlaying his book into a Hollywood film after he and Caracappa uprooted from New York in the early Nineties and settled into a life of retirement in Las Vegas, where they were both arrested last year.The jury heard that the pair earned $4,000 (£2,130) a month in under-the-table cash from the Luchese underboss, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, to deliver inside information from the NYPD to the family Bonuses were paid for each killing they helped arrange For one they were paid $65,000.