 Whatever the merits or demerits of Guevara 's economic principles , his programs were unsuccessful . Guevara 's program of " moral incentives " for workers caused a rapid drop in productivity and a rapid rise in absenteeism . Decades later , the director of Radio Martí Ernesto Betancourt , an early ally turned Castro @-@ critic and Che 's former deputy , would accuse Guevara of being " ignorant of the most elementary economic principles . " In reference to the collective failings of Guevara 's vision , reporter I.F. Stone who interviewed Guevara twice during this time , remarked that he was " Galahad not Robespierre " , while opining that " in a sense he was , like some early saint , taking refuge in the desert . Only there could the purity of the faith be safeguarded from the unregenerate revisionism of human nature . " 
