Statue tumbled in Puerto Rico before Spanish king’s visit

AP ^ | 01/24/2022 | Danica Coto

[cll]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Unknown people toppled a statue of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in the pre-dawn hours of Monday ahead of a visit of King Felipe VI to the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico.

Col. José Juan García, police commissioner for San Juan, told The Associated Press that officers patrolling the cobblestone streets of the capital’s historic district heard a loud bang at 4:30 a.m. and found the statue broken in pieces.

“It sounded like an explosion,” he said.

The statue was made of melted steel from British cannons and featured the Spanish explorer facing south with his left hand on his hip and right finger pointed toward the first settlement he founded. The ruins still mark the spot of the island’s first Spanish capital and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The statue also points in the direction of the nearby San Juan Bautista Cathedral that bears Ponce de León’s remains and is a popular tourist spot.

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The statue was located in the Plaza San José, near the second oldest surviving Spanish church in the Americas, whose construction had begun by 1532 on land donated by Ponce de León and whose base was erected atop an Indigenous settlement.

The incident occurred just hours before King Felipe VI was scheduled to meet with Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi and other officials to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of San Juan.

Christopher Columbus landed in Puerto Rico in 1493 accompanied by Ponce de León, who became the island’s first governor and quelled an uprising by the native Tainos, a subgroup of the Arawak Indians. Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colony until 1898, when Spain transferred the island to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American war.

[cll]

The irony is, most Puerto Ricans are recent descendants of Spaniards that arrived on the island during the second half of the XIX century, so this idiots are protesting their own heritage.

[cll]

My apologies for an inactive Puerto Rico ping list. I had been extremely busy at work until stupid Covid measures almost shut us down again.

Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I think most are black. For that reason I’ll say it again-make the island a penal colony. They’ll get rich off the government and when released the bad guys just might stay there. We downsize everyone else. No local mainland governments to continually stand up for these ‘victims’.

They did it with drug companies moving there(no taxes). It worked until the tax break ran out. Manufacturing-they could make items the government uses, including more prison cells.

BTW-there’s one big selling point. Statehood. Just wait until the island becomes ‘profitable’.

[AAABEST]

And they wanna be a state?

They can keep their shithole - we have enough morons.

[Red Badger]

Ask the King if he would like for us to give back PR.......................

[Rurudyne]

Irony or not is it too much to ask that these statues start falling on top of the folks pulling them down?

[dsrtsage]

Hello, the 13th century called, they want their royalty back

[DIRTYSECRET]

*And they wanna be a state?
They can keep their shithole - we have enough morons.*

Give them 20 years to become an enterprise that’s PROFITABLE to US. Find PROVABLE ways they’re no longer a s—thole. Then vote on it one year at a time until they ‘get it’.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Grant them independence.

Stop all subsides and support.

Let them turn, hat in hand, to Cuba or China.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Do not give in to your frustration. DC voters become a part of Md. Issue solved. Hawaii-the natives are(always) restless. Give them the state with all the power. It becomes a territory where we control only defense and foreign policy. No confiscation of haloe property.

Example-In Fiji the immigrants from India outnumbered the natives who staged a coup. It’s their country. We can tap into the resentment of native Hawaiians like the left does. There will still be only 50 states. There’s more. Allow foreign(Asian) airlines to stop in 2 continuous US airports(Pacific). This will bring more money to Guam and Hi. Right now United Airlines has the only monopoly.

[zeestephen]

I wonder what DeSantis will say?

Ponce de Leon also discovered Florida, and at least 10% of Puerto Rico has moved to central Florida.

[livius]

Puerto Ricans are mostly of Spanish or other European descent, including French, English, Portuguese and even German. Some Puerto Ricans have some African ancestry.

You’re thinking of the Dominican Republic, where most of the population is of African descent, although with a heavy admixture of Spanish ancestry.

DR has its problems, but it’s certainly not a place that should be a “penal colony” (nor is PR).

Incidentally, one of the biggest economic disasters for PR was the closing of the Navy base there at the behest of “activists.”

[adorno]

Let them turn, hat in hand, to Cuba or China.

You think having China in our backyard is a good thing?

[MrBambaLaMamba]

China in our kitchen, baths, dining room. living room, den, offices, bedrooms, businesses, schools, banks and farms is good?

FJB

China and all traitors.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

¡Que hostia, Tío!
¡Está fuerte eso, Majo!

Jajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja!!!!!

Saludos!!

[adorno]

China in our kitchen, baths, dining room. living room, den, offices, bedrooms, businesses, schools, banks and farms is good?

Not exactly the same as China being physically in our backyard, is it? Unless you think that having them militarily and economically and governmentally near us is the same.

[paltz]

Outsiders from NYC are coming to the island in recent years to stir up trouble. Most people who grew up and live on the island don’t take issue with these statues.

[cll]

And thankfully, the statue went back up the same day.