María Lionza, the image of the spiritualist cult that the Maduro government seized

The replica of the sculpture of María Lionza, outside the Central University, in Caracas (Venezuela). Alicolmenares

At dawn and with the help of cranes, María Lionza, a 6.7-meter-tall woman, who goes naked on a tapir with a pelvic bone as an offering, sculpted in 1951 by the Venezuelan Alejandro, was stolen from the Central University of Venezuela. Hill.

The work was part of the art inventory of the University City, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The piece traveled more than 300 kilometers in a barge to reach Quibayo, on the Sorte mountain, where every October 12 spiritism worships it, the same day that America and Europe are divided between conquerors and indigenous people in resistance.

By force, an old desire of Chavismo has materialized, which struggled for almost 20 years with university autonomy to get hold of the venerated piece.

María Lionza, like almost everything in Venezuela, has polarized the country.

During the first hours there was talk of the theft of the enormous sculpture.

The university authorities reported the incident and the police treated it as a theft.

Only until the Venezuelan Federation of Spiritism confirmed in a statement that the image had not been stolen but taken to the state of Yaracuy, where the marioloncero cult was born at the beginning of the 20th century, a mixture of indigenous, Catholic and Santeria rituals, was there some clarity about what seemed like an exploit by a network of art dealers.

Later, the Minister of Culture, Ernesto Villegas, wrote on Twitter: "Maria Lionza was "virtually kidnapped" for almost 20 years in a place inaccessible to the people."

Now, according to the government of Nicolás Maduro, she has been “released”.

18 years ago, in June 2004, the sculpture of María Lionza that is today on the altar of Sorte woke up split in two.

Years outdoors, and poor handling of the work when trying to make some molds to replicate it, caused the fracture.

But in that Venezuela that was also beginning to fracture, what happened with Colina's sculpture —with an extensive work in the city dedicated to the indigenous chiefs— was a providence.

The piece was broken at the waist on the eve of the recall referendum against Hugo Chávez, who was beginning to show the teeth of his authoritarian model.

“María Lionza, take him away!” Some shouted as they passed the image that for decades has been an urban symbol on Caracas' main highway, formerly called Francisco Fajardo and recently renamed Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro, chief of chiefs.

With the broken piece began this struggle that is almost two decades old.

The university, with the patience of a restorer, took care of recovering it together with the foundation that administers the work of the sculptor Alejandro Colina.

The lawsuit between the Mayor's Office of Caracas and the university, which disputed care, reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the UCV.

A year later it was restored, but the mayor on duty — who at that time was Freddy Bernal, the official who sealed the opening of the border between Colombia and Venezuela a week ago — had already put a fiberglass and plastic resin replica in its place.

The university claimed its pedestal to place the original, but the so-called "goddess with the eyes of water", to whom the Panamanian salsa singer Rubén Blades made a song, had a usurper.

In its war of symbols, Chavismo not only went on the offensive with the copy, but a few months ago they erected, a few meters from the duplicate of María Lionza, a huge and criticized golden brass sculpture that represents the Guaicaipuro Indian.

The image is accompanied by tiny men and women in guayuco and a deformed cement jaguar, which serves to crown the new name of the road in honor of "the boss of bosses", the epithet that Google's geolocation artificial intelligence already repeats with its robot tone on some sections of the highway where the name change has been updated.

The Presidential Commission for the Recovery of the University City intervened a year ago on the campus, severely deteriorated due to lack of maintenance due to the budget suffocation to which the Government has subjected public university houses.

What happened with the sculpture has been considered a new blow to the autonomy that the Venezuelan Constitution enshrines for these institutions.

The intervention has managed to renovate the university, but it has not been done without friction.

One of them was carried out by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who also at dawn wanted to inspect the works in the Aula Magna of the university and struggled to open the doors and show it to Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

In a statement, the commission reported that the Institute of Cultural Heritage issued "urgent measures" to safeguard María Lionza, who had been kept in a shed for 18 years waiting to be placed where the Government put the copy, and "restore Venezuelans the right to venerate and enjoy” the image.

“A month ago we predicted that the queen's sphinx would arrive in her land.

Today we are making history,” insists Richard Pérez, president of the Venezuelan Federation of Spiritism, in a video recorded from the official caravan that escorted the piece from Caracas to the state of Yaracuy, in the west of the country.

In the messages he makes a sign to Nicolasito

Nicolás Maduro Guerra (Maduro's son), and to members of his cabinet.

The coveted piece that for years was sheltered in a shed will now be in the humid tropical forest of Sorte in the care of Marialonceros cultists, while the myth of the Venezuelan government's ties with spiritualist religions is cleared up.

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