Mexico’s Columbus statue won’t be back anytime soon

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A statue of Christopher Columbus that was taken down from Mexico City’s central boulevard won’t be going back up for months. Restorers say that years of protest graffiti and weather have taken their toll on the 1877 statuary, and it will not be ready for reinstallation at a less prominent and sensitive site until the first half of 2022. City authorities announced this week that Columbus and the four missionaries who surround him will be reinstalled in a park in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood. The prime site on the city’s Reforma boulevard will be given to a statue representing an Indigenous woman.