In Mexico, the date - known as Columbus Day or Race Day - was marked by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with a message in which he said that "it is scientifically proven that there are no races", but cultures.

López Obrador, from the National Regeneration Movement (Morena, left), attached to the message a photograph of a painting from the Mayan site of Calakmul, in southeastern Mexico in the state of Campeche.

After last year authorities in the Mexican capital removed a statue of Columbus, days before a demonstration to demolish it, today the 529th anniversary of the navigator's arrival in America was marked with the replacement of another statue of his.

In place of Columbus, the sculpture “The Young Woman from Amajac” was placed, in honor of indigenous women.

During the recent commemorations of 500 years since the conquest of present-day Mexico by Hernán Cortés and 200 years of independence, the López Obrador government praised "indigenous resistance" and tried unsuccessfully to get the Spanish government to apologise to indigenous people.

Last year, López Obrador described Oct. 12 as a "very controversial" date, while the Mexican Senate declared it Pluricultural Nation Day.

To commemorate the 529 years of "resistance" of the original peoples of America, dozens of indigenous people marched this Tuesday in the municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, in the southeast of the country.

Protesters also concentrated their protests against the Mexican state to demand, with flags and sticks in hand, freedom and justice for indigenous “political prisoners”.

This year, Mexico celebrates the 700th anniversary of the founding of the city of Tenochtitlan (1321), the 500th anniversary of the conquest of Hernán Cortés (1521) - an event now known as "indigenous resistance" - and the 200th anniversary of the consummation of independence ( 1821).

In ​​​​​​​London, young activists from the Extinction Rebellion group smeared red paint on a statue of Christopher Columbus located in front of the Spanish embassy in the British capital.

The group "Extinction Rebellion Affinity Youth Network" demanded, in a note sent to Efe, the removal of the monument in honor of Columbus, considering that the "European invasion" of America "initiated by Christopher Columbus" in 1492 caused countless deaths among the indigenous people.

Activists carrying out the protest carried banners with the slogan "Columbus must fall" and also lit a flame beside the monument near the Spanish diplomatic legation.

Young people in the group criticized "Columbus' role in these atrocities" and his "elevation as a great figure in European history".

Four members of the group were arrested during the action, which was broadcast live through their social networks, according to the organization.

At the same time as the protest outside the Spanish embassy, ​​around 100 people protested in Trafalgar Square, in central London, against the October 12 celebrations.

In Peru, the government of President Pedro Castillo congratulated Spain on the celebration of October 12, but also commemorated "the resistance of indigenous women against the oppressive colonial order".

The Peruvian Presidency avoided calling October 12 the Day of Hispanity and renamed it "Day of Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue".

“We will recognize and value our cultures and diversity to build together an inclusive Peru. We are going to reinforce the commitment to promote actions that guarantee respect for the rights of communities”, says an official statement from the presidency.

While the Ministry of Culture, whose minister is the lawyer and human rights defender Gisela Ortiz, considered this day as "a fundamental date that seeks to recognise and value our indigenous or autochthonous people", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed to Spain the "commitment to continue to strengthen our historic relationship of friendship and cooperation for the benefit of our citizens"

The Foreign Relations communiqué prompted numerous criticisms from the left sectors of the head of diplomacy, Óscar Maúrtua de Romaña.

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP), in charge of sociologist Anahí Durand, welcomed the "commemoration of the resistance of indigenous women against the oppressive colonial order".

Recently, members of right-wing parties in Peru signed the Charter of Madrid, an anti-communist manifesto promoted by the Spanish nationalist party VOX, which considers the conquest of America by the Spanish crown as "an act of liberation" from the Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires.

In Ecuador, the date was, until 2011, Columbus Day, but since then it has been renamed "Day of Interculturality and Plurinationality", which has not diminished the emotional burden for indigenous nationalities.

As a precaution against acts of vandalism today, Ecuadorian police protected with fences a statue of the Spanish queen Isabel the Catholic on a central avenue in Quito, which indigenous movement militants tried to demolish last year and which is also already covered in paint.