Red Paint Attack On Columbus Canvas By Futuro Vegetal Activists

Two activists from nan biology group Futuro Vegetal were arrested connected Sunday, 12 October, aft throwing biodegradable reddish overgarment complete a coating of Christopher Columbus astatine nan Naval Museum successful Madrid.

According to reports from El Confidencial and El País, nan overgarment damaged nan left-hand broadside of José Garnelo’s 1892 activity First Tribute to Christopher Columbus, displayed astatine nan depository entrance. Museum officials detained nan 2 women until National Police arrived. Both were charged pinch crimes against taste practice and taken for questioning.

The activists unfurled a banner reference “October 12, thing to celebrate. Ecosocial justice.” Futuro Vegetal said nan enactment denounced nan “extractive neocolonialism” that continues to utilization Indigenous lands and earthy resources.

Spokesperson Luna Lagos said Spain’s National Day “celebrates hundreds of years of oppression and genocide against nan Indigenous peoples of Abya Yala.” Another spokesperson, Victòria Domingo, called for boycotts of companies progressive successful extractivism.

Spain’s National Day celebrations

Spain’s National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España) is celebrated each twelvemonth connected 12 October, marking nan day Christopher Columbus arrived successful nan Americas successful 1492 nether nan emblem of nan Spanish Crown. The arena is officially presented arsenic a commemoration of “Spain’s humanities and taste ties pinch nan Hispanic world.”

However, nan day is besides contentious. For galore crossed Latin America and among Indigenous communities, 12 October represents nan opening of hundreds of years of colonisation and dispossession. Some Spanish regions and respective Latin American countries person renamed it “Día de la Resistencia Indígena” (Day of Indigenous Resistance) aliases “Día de los Pueblos Originarios.”

Christopher Columbus, calved successful Genoa astir 1451, completed 4 transatlantic voyages betwixt 1492 and 1504, sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. His presence successful nan Caribbean paved nan measurement for Spanish colonisation of nan Americas and nan first European settlements. While agelong celebrated arsenic a awesome of exploration, his expeditions besides led to enslavement, unit and epidemics that devastated Indigenous populations.

Today, debates complete Columbus’s bequest proceed globally.

In a abstracted protest, astir 20 activists from Marea Palestina staged a sit-in earlier Picasso’s Guernica astatine nan Reina Sofía Museum, demanding an extremity to “the genocide against nan Palestinian people.” Visitors were concisely evacuated earlier nan assemblage reopened.

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