A statue of the Spanish conqueror Sebastián de Belálcazar was demolished Wednesday by indigenous people in the city of Popayán, in southwestern Colombia.
A demonstration against the massacres that took place recently in the Andean country became the pretext for the collapse of this monument, located on top of a mountain that is considered a place of memory for the indigenous people.
Belalcázar was the conqueror of the cities of Cali and Popayán.
The fall with ropes of the statue and the consequent celebration of the indigenous people has caused controversy in Colombia between those who see it as an act of dignity and those who criticize it as a "violent" act, a debate similar to that which has been installed in others countries of the world, including the United States, in relation to the monuments of slavers or figures of history accused of racism and the reinterpretation of the past.
"These symbols trample on the historical memory of the indigenous peoples, but also of the Afro peoples. Would you like to see a statue of the murderer placed on top of their dead?" Luis Eduardo Calambas, representative of the Misak people, told Caracol Radio.
The Colombian indigenous people had been developing the idea since last June, when the Movement of Indigenous Authorities of the South West released a statement in which the so-called Children of Water or descendants of Cacique Puben staged a “trial” of Belalcázar. “Crimes that are imputed to him. : genocide, dispossession and land grabbing, physical and cultural disappearance of the peoples that were part of the Pubenence Confederation, torture by means of impalement techniques and attack with dogs […] ”, includes the document released by the community.
The Morro de Tulcán, where the statue was located, was a pyramid built on a pre-Columbian cemetery in which the indigenous people performed ancestral rituals.
In 1930 it was proposed to make two statues: one in homage to Belalcázar, which was to be located in a city square;
and another from Cacique Puben, who was going to crown the hill.
However, according to Agenda Propia, a media dedicated to indigenous issues, that promise was broken and Belácazar's was installed at the top of the pyramid.
"A symbol of 500 years of humiliation and domination falls to the native peoples," said the indigenous senator, Feliciano Valencia.
But the history of this monument is far from over.
The mayor of Popayán, Juan Carlos López, announced that he will reinstall it.
"The cultural and historical discussion will have other spaces, it can occur but not with violence because if not tomorrow the churches of Christians or Catholics will burn.
We are going to restore it and put it on its pedestal, because it is part of our history, which we cannot erase, ”said the local president.