Mexico City Committee: Boot Out Statue of Azerbaijan Strongman

Tracy Wilkinson

 

That big, hulking statue of the Caucasian strongman in Mexico City has got to go.

Such was the recommendation Friday, November 23, of a special committee appointed to resolve one of the odder controversies to beset this capital. At issue: the city government’s decision to allow Azerbaijan to erect a monument to its late president, Heydar Aliyev, on the iconic Reforma Boulevard, prime real estate in the sprawling megalopolis.

Mexico City Journal: Statue of a Foreign Autocrat Sits Uneasily With Some



Elisabeth Malkin

 



When the mayor inaugurated a pretty little garden fronted by a very large statue at the edge of the central Chapultepec Park last summer, it seemed another step forward in his drive to improve the quality of life in this impossible city.       

But a quick check on Google might have spared Mayor Marcelo Ebrard from what happened next.

Speaking off the cuff, the mayor praised the statue’s subject — a complete stranger to many Mexico City residents — as “a great political leader, a statesman.”