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Group seeks to have downtown Pancho Villa statue removed

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Posted at 1:42 PM, Dec 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-12 00:43:41-05

TUCSON, Ariz. - A group is renewing efforts to get the city to take down the infamous Pancho Villa statue.

Judicial Watch submitted a request to the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona to take down the statue of Villa at Veinte de Agosto Park, 123 W. Congress St.

In a letter to the Arts Foundation filed by Mark Spencer of Judicial Watch, the group requested a public hearing on the statue's removal, citing "overwhelming public objection" to the statue.

The group meets at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress St.

The Mexican government and a Mexican media organization gave the bronze statue to the state in June 1981.

Previous efforts to have the statue removed have failed.

Villa was a Mexican revolutionary general who lived from 1878 to 1923. He led a deadly raid on the New Mexico border town of Columbus in 1916, which set him at odds with the U.S. government.