---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:32:40 -0400 From: Joe McIntire To: sipaz@igc.org, sipaz@laneta.apc.org, fcpj@afn.org Subject: Free the Tegucigalpa Reds! Indians face trial for smashing Columbus statue 06:48 p.m Oct 13, 1997 Eastern TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Honduran authorities said on Monday they would prosecute a group of about 100 Indians who beheaded and smeared red paint over a statue honoring Christopher Columbus. The Indians toppled the statue in the south of the Honduran capital on Sunday, while their countrymen were celebrating the 505th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. They then cut off its head and hands. ``I think these criminals should be punished and we should bring the full force of the law to bear on them,'' Honduran Vice-President Guadalupe Jerezano told reporters. Prosecutors said the Indians would be sent before a criminal court on charges of damage and robbery. Members of the group said they were protesting against what they termed the injustice suffered by their people after Europeans settled the Americas. Indian leader Salvador Zuniga denied that his men were vandals. ``This was a reaction to all injustice which Indians have suffered. More than 70 million Indians were murdered in the Spanish colonial period,'' he claimed. Leo Valladares, head of the government National Human Rights Commission, dismissed the Indians' arguments as ``fanaticism.'' ``Honduras has got over all these wounds of the past, we are now 505 years from the discovery of America and we have to look to the future,'' he said. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.