Caribbean Nationals Sign On To Petitions To Remove Statues Of Columbus, Nelson

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. June 17, 2020: Inspired by the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the US which has now seen an expanded call for the removal of statues and monuments to colonizers, slave owners and segregationists of the confederacy, some Caribbean nationals in the region are also petitioning for the removal of similar monuments from their Caribbean island home.

Chief among those targeted is Christopher Columbus, who is viewed as the colonizer-in-chief.

In The Bahamas, Craig Woodside wants the Christopher Columbus Statue at Government House in Nassau removed because of the Spanish colonizer’s history of “murder, rape, slavery and genocide.” So far he his petition has over 11,000 of its 15,000 signatures.

In Trinidad and Tobago, a group named Cross Rhodes Freedom Project, is urging the mayor of Port-of-Spain to remove Christopher Columbus monuments in that city.

“We the people of Trinidad and Tobago cannot accept this insult any longer, Columbus is not our hero we do not support or glorify GENOCIDE, RAPE, SLAVERY AND PLUNDER,” the group wrote in its Change.org petition that has so far gotten almost 8,000 of its 10,000 signatures.

In Puerto Rico, Melissa Garcia has started a petition to remove the Christopher Columbus Statue in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. “We, the people of Indigenous Taíno/Arawakan descent, petition for the removal of the “Birth of the New World” Monument that is currently placed in Arecibo, Puerto Rico,” she wrote on her call which has gotten over 4,800 of her 5,000 signatures to date.

In Barbados, Alex Downes, wants the Barbados government to remove Lord Nelson’s statue from the capital Bridgetown, and so do over 10,000 supporters who have signed the petition that is looking for 15,000 signatures.

Downes, a Barbadian History and Law graduate, says he was prompted to make the petition as a result of seeing the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests across the United States of America.

Lord Horatio Nelson is described by some as “the dutiful patriot …. in heartfelt solidarity with British slaveholders” against the perceived menace of Wilber Wilberforce and his campaign to abolish the slave trade.

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