A statue of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León was toppled early Monday morning by unknown folks in San Juan, Puerto Rico, simply hours earlier than a go to from the Spanish king the Related Press reported.

The statue, which stands in San Juan's Plaza San José, was discovered damaged on the bottom round 4:30 a.m.

Officers have been patrolling the historic district on the time, and police commissioner Colonel José Juan García advised the Related Press that the officers heard a loud noise. "It gave the impression of an explosion," he stated.

The alleged vandalism passed off mere hours earlier than the King of Spain, Felipe VI, was to make a go to to San Juan to fulfill with Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi and different officers as they have a good time the five hundredth anniversary of the founding of town.

One Twitter consumer posted footage of the statue's wreckage. To view the submit, click on right here.

Police advised the Related Press that they've seen different statues defaced with graffiti, however this was the primary they'd seen one toppled to the bottom.

There have been protests in Puerto Rico towards the symbols of Spain's legacy on the island up to now, as two years in the past, activists marched by way of San Juan so as to protest the symbols of oppression which can be scattered throughout the historic district, wishing to erase the photographs of Spain's maintain on the U.S. territory.

"These statues symbolize all that historical past of violence, of invasion, of looting, of theft, of homicide," an activist by the identify of Pluma, advised the Washington Publish in 2020. "These are crimes towards humanity."

Within the yr 1493, Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de León landed in Puerto Rico, and Ponce de León turned the primary governor of the island. The transfer into energy brought about an uproar by the native Tainos, a subgroup of the Arawak Indians.

Puerto Rico was underneath Spanish rule till the yr 1898, when it was transferred to america after the Spanish-American conflict.

In June of 2020, a statue of Ponce de León in Florida was vandalized. Based on the Orlando Sentinel, the phrases "Ais homicide" have been spray-painted on the statue's pedestal, and purple paint was splattered throughout the physique depicting the explorer.

One other statue of the explorer was defaced with what gave the impression to be rotten eggs in St. Augustine, and several other extra had been vandalized in Miami, all going down in the summertime of 2020 as an act of concern over racism following the police killing of George Floyd.

Newsweek reached out to the human rights group, LatinoJustice, for remark.

Old San Juan the original capital city
A statue depicting explorer Juan Ponce de León was discovered toppled in San Juan hours earlier than a go to from Spain's king. On this picture, a statue of Juan Ponce de Leon sits in entrance of the second oldest church within the New World, San Jose Church, April 26, 2004 in Outdated San Juan, the unique capital metropolis of San Juan, Puerto Rico.Joe Raedle/Getty Pictures