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WHAT THE HECK IS A STATUE OF AZERBAIJAN'S FORMER DICTATOR DOING IN MEXICO CITY?
Fusion.net, Florida
Jan 13 2015
By Rafa Fernandez De Castro
You know when a distant relative gives you some particularly awful
piece of art that you can't exactly throw away but you don't want to
display too prominently where someone might actually notice it and
quietly question your mental health?
Mexico has that problem, thanks to an imperious-looking statue of
Azerbaijan's former Soviet-era leader Heydar Aliyev, which gazes
wistfully towards the horizon, pondering the contributions of the
lumpenproletariat, or something like that.
The statue of the old communist leader, first given to the Mexican
government in 2012, has become somewhat of a headache for Mexican
officials, who have quietly tried to shuffle it around the capital
in hopes of finding a place to put it where no one will notice.
The statue was originally placed in a park overseeing the city's busy
Reforma Avenue, but quickly removed after some residents complained
the monument glorified the legacy of a dictator.
Mexico City residents and members of the Armenian expat community
blame the former Azerbaijani leader, who died in 2003, of committing
human-rights abuses, censoring the media and promoting his cult of
personality with an iron fist during his tenure.
Bowing to pressure, Mexico City then-Mayor Marcelo Ebrad removed the
statue and stuck it in a warehouse until he could think of a Plan B.
He couldn't. But getting rid of it permanently has proven difficult;
Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Mexico threatened to suspend his nation's
$4 billion worth of investments and cut diplomatic ties if the state
removed the statue from display.
Now, the new mayor of Mexico City thinks he's come up with a solution.
Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera announced last week that his administration
will give the Azerbaijani government a piece of prime real estate in
the opulent Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood where the statue can
be displayed in all its glory on private property.
But Mayor Mancera may have spoken too fast, since he doesn't have
the authority to give land to a foreign government without permission
from the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, activists who were instrumental in the removal of the
statue in the first place are still fighting to remove a marble
map from the base of the disfigured monument that awards Azerbaijan
territory that's under dispute with Armenia.
http://fusion.net/story/38059/what-the-heck-is-a-statue-of-azerbaijans-former-dictator-doing-in-mexico-city/
Fusion.net, Florida
Jan 13 2015
By Rafa Fernandez De Castro
You know when a distant relative gives you some particularly awful
piece of art that you can't exactly throw away but you don't want to
display too prominently where someone might actually notice it and
quietly question your mental health?
Mexico has that problem, thanks to an imperious-looking statue of
Azerbaijan's former Soviet-era leader Heydar Aliyev, which gazes
wistfully towards the horizon, pondering the contributions of the
lumpenproletariat, or something like that.
The statue of the old communist leader, first given to the Mexican
government in 2012, has become somewhat of a headache for Mexican
officials, who have quietly tried to shuffle it around the capital
in hopes of finding a place to put it where no one will notice.
The statue was originally placed in a park overseeing the city's busy
Reforma Avenue, but quickly removed after some residents complained
the monument glorified the legacy of a dictator.
Mexico City residents and members of the Armenian expat community
blame the former Azerbaijani leader, who died in 2003, of committing
human-rights abuses, censoring the media and promoting his cult of
personality with an iron fist during his tenure.
Bowing to pressure, Mexico City then-Mayor Marcelo Ebrad removed the
statue and stuck it in a warehouse until he could think of a Plan B.
He couldn't. But getting rid of it permanently has proven difficult;
Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Mexico threatened to suspend his nation's
$4 billion worth of investments and cut diplomatic ties if the state
removed the statue from display.
Now, the new mayor of Mexico City thinks he's come up with a solution.
Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera announced last week that his administration
will give the Azerbaijani government a piece of prime real estate in
the opulent Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood where the statue can
be displayed in all its glory on private property.
But Mayor Mancera may have spoken too fast, since he doesn't have
the authority to give land to a foreign government without permission
from the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, activists who were instrumental in the removal of the
statue in the first place are still fighting to remove a marble
map from the base of the disfigured monument that awards Azerbaijan
territory that's under dispute with Armenia.
http://fusion.net/story/38059/what-the-heck-is-a-statue-of-azerbaijans-former-dictator-doing-in-mexico-city/