Claudia Sheinbaum: "The removal of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara sculptures is wrong."

This article by Néstor Jiménez and Emir Olivares appeared in the July 17, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier leftist daily newspaper.

Mexico City. President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo maintained that the Cuauhtémoc City Hall’s removal of the sculptures of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “El Che” Guevara, which had been in Plaza San Carlos in the Tabacalera neighborhood since 2018, is “wrong” and called for the city government to coordinate with the city hall to seek a relocation.

“Why don’t they hand it over and put it somewhere else?” the President asked during a press conference.

Both sculptures make up the “Meeting Moment,” a work that was placed there more than six years ago.

The city hall asserted, in a statement, that it was removed because it lacked the necessary permits. [Editor’s note: This has proven to be false. It was authorized by COMAEP on November 3, 2020.]

To this, the President questioned: “But if it has been there, how many years has it been there?” And after laughing, she added: “First, well, it’s wrong (to remove it), but if their intention is for it not to be there, then we’ll talk to the head of government, because it’s a historical monument. Beyond whether we agree or disagree with one figure or another, they have to do with Mexico.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in her youth, playing the charango in Pilcuicatl – Los Niños que Cantan, the Nueva canción group she performed with.

Sheinbaum Pardo recalled that during her administration as head of government, the statue of Christopher Columbus that was on Paseo de la Reforma was removed after a “very large demand from Indigenous groups” and not at the request of the government.

The statue of Christopher Columbus, she noted, was placed in another location. The Women’s Fighting Roundabout is located in that space, after collectives decided to occupy the site, along with the statue of the Young Woman of Amajac, which was placed a few meters away.