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As a response by the national government to the protest of the Misak indigenous people that led to the demolition of the statue of the Spanish conqueror Sebastían de Benalcázar, the Institute of Anthropology that depends on the Ministry of Culture reached an agreement between the indigenous authorities and the government. The ICAN recognized that the Morro de Tulcán is an archaeological asset and therefore the nation’s heritage.
Thus, Mayor Juan Carlos López cannot rush by his own decision to reinstall the statue of the conqueror in the same place where it was, as was his intention, without authorization from ICAN.
A dialogue table was set up with the mediation of the Ministry of Culture and with the participation of the local government and indigenous authorities that will work on the issue. The Misak have insisted that it is an ancient sacred place and therefore cannot be intervened. Everything indicates that Mayor López will have to find a new place for the equestrian statue of the founder of the city of Popayán, which should be in one of the squares of the colonial layout of the city and not in ancestral indigenous territory.
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