Christopher Columbus Monument
Caracas, Venezuela
Date of incident: 10/12/2004

On Columbus Day, October 12, 2004,Venezuelans protesting the 512th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival pulled down a 30 foot, 100 year old bronze statue of Christopher Columbus. The statue was dragged down the street to the Teresa Carreño theatre, where hundreds of indigenous people performed songs and dances, and a symbolic trial was held. After the guilty verdict, the statue was hung upside down from a tree. The statue was repaired, but will not be returned to its original location which has been renamed Avenue Indigenous Resistance (formerly Avenue Columbus). There is discussion of placing the statue in a museum. A documentary film of this event was made. Titled, Abajo el Colonialismo...Pachamama Libre!, it was produced by the Cooperativa Calle Y Media Escuela Pachamerikana: Semillas Liberatrias.

Sources
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2004/10/299955.html
https://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299652.html
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/734
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/12/spain.venezuela

Link to purchase the DVD, Abajo el Colonialismo...Pachamama Libre!: http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/venezuelaitems.html

Photo Sources
left: http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/112106.shtml
right three: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/734