Mexico City Wants to Get Rid of Columbus Statue: ‘After Him Came the Conquerors’ | Abroad

“Of course we recognize Columbus,” Sheinbaum said in a speech on Sunday. “But there are two points of view.” From a European point of view, Columbus is the discoverer of America. But here we have a different view, said the mayor, that in fact there was a European who got between two places and then the invaders came.

A statue of Columbus has stood on Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main boulevards of the Mexican capital, since the 19th century. The street is decorated with monuments to people from Mexican and world history, such as South American freedom fighter Simon Bolivar, Yugoslav dictator Josep Protz Tito, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Sheinbaum said the city council would find a “decent place” for Columbus.

Last year around this period, the statue became temporary Remove it as a precaution Because the militants threatened to “kidnap” Columbus. Now the statue will disappear from the city center forever.

In 2021, Mexico will celebrate the bicentenary of its independence, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the resistance against the Spanish “conquerors.” This came after the arrival of the navigator Columbus, who in 1492 heralded the era of colonization of the continent and the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade.

In recent years, several cities in the region have removed or moved statues of Columbus from San Francisco in the United States to Buenos Aires in Argentina.

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