Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Venezuela News Roundup October 13, 2004
Reuters - Oct 12, 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6482069
Chavez Supporters Pull Down Statue of Columbus
By Pascal Fletcher
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - 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.
Police firing tear gas later recovered parts of the broken bronze image, which was dragged by the protesters to a theater where the Venezuelan leader was due to speak.
Two years ago, Chavez rechristened the Oct. 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 following 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 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.
Outside the Teresa Carreno theater, the protesters hung the statue from a tree and then let it fall to the ground. Police arrested several of them.
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.
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 57-year-old Orlando Iturbe.
Some passersby were shocked. "I don't agree with this," said Jose Luis Maita, who watched with his wife and small daughters. (Additional reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero)
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AP via Dow Jones Newswires - Oct 12, 2004 http://online.wsj.com/search#BT_CO_20041012_009448
Venezuela Govt Supporters Knock Down Statue Of Columbus
CARACAS (AP)--While representatives of Venezuela 's indigenous groups urged a mayor to bulldoze a statue of Christopher Columbus in one Caracas plaza on Tuesday, radical government supporters leveled another statue of the Italian explorer to protest the alleged "genocide" of South America's natives under colonial rule.
Freddy Bernal, an ally of President Hugo Chavez and mayor of Caracas' Libertador district, said five people were arrested after dozens used ropes to pull down the roughly century-old bronze statue of Columbus in Caracas' Plaza Venezuela and then spray-painted graffiti reading: "Columbus Equals Genocide" and "The Resistance Continues!" on the statue's foundation.
"We call on small groups that don't follow the (official) government line not to take part in such acts," Bernal told the state-run television channel.
Earlier Tuesday, representatives of Venezuela 's indigenous tribes petitioned Bernal to take down a statue of Columbus in Caracas' El Calvario park and replace it with the bust of the legendary Venezuelan Indian chief Guaicaipuro, who fought against colonists.
Chavez has glorified chiefs -or "caciques" in Spanish -such as Guaicaipuro, who is remembered for his attacks on the Spanish founders of Caracas, and Peru's Tupac Amaru, an Inca leader who led the continent's largest Indian uprising.
There are approximately 350,000 indigenous peoples from 28 distinct ethnic groups in this South American country of 25 million.
Columbus first stepped on Venezuelan soil on Oct. 12, 1498 in what is now the town of Macuro, located 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of the capital, Caracas., the capital.
Venezuelans refer to "Columbus Day" as "The Day of Race," a reference to the day different races first met here and began to mix. The day was designated as such by dictator Juan Vicente Gomez in 1921.
Chavez, a self-proclaimed "revolutionary" who is wildly popular among most indigenous groups, signed a decree in 2002 changing the name of Venezuela 's Oct. 12 "Columbus Day" to "The Day of Indigenous Resistance." Joined by indigenous leaders from across the country, Chavez attended ceremonies to commemorate the national holiday on Tuesday.
Through a new constitution pushed through by his political allies in 1999, Chavez paved the way for bilingual education, the demarcation of "indigenous habitats" and gave indigenous groups representation in the legislature.