Hundreds of indigenous demonstrators took to streets in Colombia and toppled the statue of Sebastián de Belalcázar, a Spanish conquistador in Popayán, a southwestern city. The police officers looked as the Misak community’s protesters used ropes to take down the statue of de Belalcázar, who is credited with founding the city in the early 16th century.
The demonstrators from indigenous communities have maintained that the equestrian figure represents nearly five centuries of slavery and genocide. They said that he “was one of the main people responsible for the servitude and extermination of indigenous peoples and African slaves in the region.”
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The representative of the native Colombian Amerindians further added that by force, they had overthrown the statue of conquistador that represents oppression and slavery, as well as recorded a clear rejection of the extermination of people. Meanwhile, the mayor of the city described it as an act of violence against a symbol of a multicultural Popayán.
De Belalcázar led numerous expeditions in southern America, especially its north-western parts, and founded what is now Quito and Guayaquil, neighboring Ecuador’s capital. And his statue was built in 1937.
However, the indigenous Misak community blames conquistador for land grabbing and killing of their ancestors. In recent months, the toppling of statues of figures related to colonialism and slavery has been a feature of Black Lives Matter protesters in Europe and the US.
The movement has been at forefront of anti-racism demonstrations across the US, sparked by the death of an unarmed African American, George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May. Many other incidents of police’s racial profiling of black Americans have also surfaced, fueling more public anger as the elections are just days ahead.
Thousands of people have taken to streets internationally and across America against racial inequality, systematic racism, and treatment of black minorities at the hands of law enforcement agencies.
