Mexico City’s government has appointed a committee to review and recommend a solution to the controversy over a statue of Azerbaijan’s “founder of the nation” that was erected on the city’s main boulevard, authorities said Monday, AP reports.
The Stalinesque bronze statue of the late authoritarian leader Geidar Aliyev was erected by the Azerbaijani Embassy, which paid for the renovation of part of the city park where the statue sits.
A second statue donated by the Caucasus republic appears in another park Azerbaijan paid to renovate in downtown Mexico City.
Protesters have said they are offended by a monument to an authoritarian figure like Aliyev, who led Azerbaijan first as Communist Party boss during Soviet times and then as president from 1993 to his death in 2003.
The city’s leftist government said it had appointed a three-member commission of academics and experts to review complaints about the statues.
