[Peace-discuss] The Right Way to Celebrate Columbus Day

[Morton K.Brussel]

FYI  mkb

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "M. Junaid Alam" <mjunaidalam at msalam.net>
> Date: October 15, 2004 12:22:44 AM CDT
> To: lefthook at lists.riseup.net, lefthook.org at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [lefthook.org] The Right Way to Celebrate Columbus Day
>
> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6482069
>
> Chavez Supporters Pull Down Statue of Columbus
> Tue Oct 12, 2004 07:43 PM ET
> 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)
>
> © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
>
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