Plans to build a monument to Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in Galway have been slammed.

Businessman and former politician Declan Ganley has heavy criticized the proposal.

The Sunday Times reported last weekend that Galway City Council wants to erect a statue of the Marxist guerrilla who helped Fidel Castro to power in Cuba in 1959.

The Cuban and Argentinean embassies to Ireland have already been approached to help fund the project in honor of Guevara whose grandmother was a descendant of the Lynch family from Galway.

Ganley, the former head and founder of the Libertas political party, has slated the idea.

“This is the pet project of a bunch of extremists in the Labour Party,” said Ganley, who ran for President two elections ago.

“Commemorating him in this way will damage the reputation of Galway internationally.

“I actually first heard about this proposal during a trip to the United States last week, when the issue was raised with me by members of the American business community.

“To say that they are shocked to see Galway considering a step like this would be an understatement.

“This monument will damage Galway. It will make us less attractive for investment. It will drive away tourism. It will pour salt in he wounds of those this man tortured, kidnapped, maimed and killed.

“It would be a monument to the insensitivity and ignorance of those who dreamt it up, and it would shame the people of Galway and Ireland.”