USA, monuments to Christopher Columbus are destroyed: decapitated the one in Boston, torn down the one in Richmond

The wave of protest by the Black Lives Matter movement does not spare the monuments of figures with controversial pasts or who are considered to be behind the genocide of natives and the slave trade in the United States. One of the most contested figures is that of Christopher Columbus (Genoa, 1451 - Valladolid, 1506), considered the explorer who initiated the colonization of America. There are historical studies that, by rereading contemporary sources, have come to the conclusion that Columbus, during his tenure as Governor of the Indies on behalf of the Spanish crown, made systematic use of torture against the natives to rule the island of Hispaniola, and did not disdain enslavement. By one side of the movement Columbus is therefore seen as one of the figures who enabled the genocide of the natives and the beginning of slavery.

In Boston, a city of nearly seven hundred thousand people and one of the oldest in the United States, the Christopher Columbus monument located in Christopher Columbus Park on Atlantic Avenue was beheaded at night. The head was found at its base. Police in the Massachusetts city are currently investigating to trace the perpetrators. This is not the first time the Columbus monument has been the subject of protests: the Boston statue had already been beheaded in 2006, and was daubed in 2015 with red paint and the words “Black Lives Matter” on its base.

Also tonight, in Richmond, Virginia’s capital city, the Columbus monument in Byrd Park was taken down following a demonstration that began peacefully: after being taken down, the statue was first daubed, then set on fire, and finally thrown into the park’s lake. Local media report that during the action a small group of troublemakers also assaulted an NBC photographer, who was, however, unaffected.

In Syracuse, a city in upstate New York that is home to a prestigious university, on the other hand, a petition has started asking local authorities to remove the statue of the Genoese navigator, and similar initiatives have also started in other American locations.

USA, monuments to Christopher Columbus are destroyed: decapitated the one in Boston, torn down the one in Richmond

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