Shortest Ever Speech At UN General Assembly? Find out the facts.

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Video clips of prominent figures making impactful statements, which often go viral on social media platforms, are sometimes accompanied by glorified and misleading narrations. Let’s look at one such recurring clip, claiming to be the shortest ever speech, with the famous words of “Patria o Muerte” 

Social Media Posts :

A social media post was shared with the caption, “The comrade Che Guevara’s historical and shortest speech”.

As seen in the video of the social media post, instead of delivering a long speech, Che Guevara utters a short phrase, “Patria o Muerte” – Homeland or Death (1964) and leaves the stage.

Facebook | Archived Link

Here is another video that was published in that way. FB| Archived Link

Based on the requests we received to verify the accuracy of this information, we took steps to assess its credibility. 

Fact Check:

To investigate this, we first examined whether the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara had delivered a ‘three-word speech’, the Spanish phrase ‘Patria o Muerte’ (Homeland or Death), at the 1964 United Nations Assembly.

Che Guevara’s speech at the United Nations lasted about an hour.

When we looked at Che Guevara’s speech at the United Nations Assembly on December 11, 1963, it lasted about an hour. An audio file containing statements made by ‘Che’ in this regard lists this speech as one hour and forty-five seconds long. Archived Link

However, numerous short clips of around 30 seconds show Che Guevara walking towards the podium of a UN Assembly and then making the famous ‘Patria o Muerte’ words and then walking away from the podium, suggesting the speech was very short.

Below is an excerpt from Che’s speech, which was posted on videos from the United Nations and other YouTube channels, and has been edited to a duration of 6 minutes.

Che Guevara’s speech at the United Nations

Che Guevara has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, criticising imperialism and defending the Cuban Revolution. He also condemned apartheid in South Africa and racial discrimination in the United States, expressing solidarity with liberation movements in Africa, Asia, and Palestine.

His speech emphasised that oppressed people have the right to take up arms if peaceful methods fail, linking these struggles to the broader fight against colonialism and oppression. His words represented a defence of Cuba Cuna and a call for a global revolutionary unity. You can view the full speech here.  Archived Link

The phrase “Patria o muerte” (Homeland or Death) is not a statement by Che Guevara.

Furthermore, the phrase “Patria o Muerte” (Homeland or Death) was first uttered by Fidel Castro in a speech in Havana in March 1960, following the La Cumbre explosion. This phrase was later popularised by Che Guevara at the United Nations in 1964, and it has become a symbolic slogan of the Cuban Revolution. Reports on it are here and here.

Fidel Castro, a Cuban revolutionary and politician, was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. Che Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary and physician who, along with Castro, played a key role in the Cuban Revolution.

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Conclusion:

Our fact-checking shows that the comparative video posted, which claims that Che Guevara’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly was a 3-word speech, is misleading. The social media post included an edited video to show just one phrase, the famous Spanish phrase ‘Patria o Muerte’ (Homeland or Death) from a nearly hour-long speech delivered by Che Guevara at a UN summit.