Author: Reuters
Publication: www.cnn.com
Date: October 12, 2004
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/10/12/venezuela.columbus.reut/
Supporters of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez celebrated Columbus Day on Tuesday by toppling a statue in
Caracas of the explorer whom Chavez blames for ushering in a "genocide"
of native Indians.
Two years ago, Chavez rechristened
the October 12 holiday -- commemorated widely in the Americas to mark Christopher
Columbus' 1492 landing in the New World -- "Indian Resistance Day."
The new name honored Indians killed
by Spanish and other foreign conquerors who followed in the wake of the
Italian-born Columbus who sailed in the service of the Spanish crown.
As the left-wing nationalist president
led celebrations on Tuesday to honor Indian chiefs who resisted the Spanish
conquest, a group of his supporters conducted a mock trial of a bronze
statue of Columbus in central Caracas.
They declared the image guilty of
"imperialist genocide," looped ropes around its outstretched arm and neck
and heaved it down from its marble base. No police or other authorities
intervened as the protesters drove off in a truck yelling, "We've killed
Columbus!"
"This isn't a historical heritage.
... Columbus is the symbol of a conquest that was a globalization by blood
and fire, a cultural massacre," said Vitelio Herrera, a philosophy student
at Venezuela's Central University.
Chavez has called Latin America's
Spanish and Portuguese conquerors "worse than Hitler" and the precursors
of modern-day "imperialism" he says is now embodied by the United States,
the biggest buyer of his country's oil.
"We're celebrating what the president
has said," said Herrera. The base of the toppled statue was daubed with
slogans such as "Columbus - Bush. Out!"
The protesters, many who wore red
T-shirts with slogans supporting Chavez, repeated the Venezuelan leader's
fierce criticism of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
"Didn't they tear down the statue
of Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq? For me, (U.S. President George
W.) Bush represents barbarity and Chavez represents civilization," said
Orlando Iturbe, a 57-year-old member of a pro-Chavez cooperative.
Some passersby said they were shocked
by the action. "I don't agree with this. The statue was something historical
that we should remember," said Jose Luis Maita, who watched with his wife
and small daughters.
