Mexicans puzzled by Azerbaijan leader monument

MEXICO CITY -- The appearance of a life-size statue of Azerbaijan's "founder of the nation" on Mexico City's elegant Reforma Avenue, not far from Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Mexico's national heroes, is raising eyebrows and protests.

..."It's like a personality cult, transferred to Mexico," said writer and activist Homero Aridjis, who described the style as "social realism from the Soviet era.'

"It's as if they brought a dictator from Mars, "Aridjis said. "Are we going to be a center for monuments to dead dictators? Who's next? Hitler? Stalin?"

“....Hoxha’s leadership was characterized by his proclaimed firm adherence to anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism from the mid-1970s onwards. After his break with Maoism in the 1976–1978 period, numerous Maoist parties declared themselves Hoxhaist. The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) is the most well known collection of these parties today....”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha

"....The details of much of [Heydar] Aliyev's early life remain obscure. According to his hagographical website he was born in Nakhchevan City. After the graduation from Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, from 1939 till 1941, Aliyev attended the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy) where he studied architecture. In 1949-50, he studied at the USSR MGB Officer Corps Qualifications-Raising School. Aliyev's official biography also claims that he studied at the Baku State University, graduating with a degree in history in 1957. However, it seems that he actually attended the Ministry of State Security Academy in Leningrad.

.....Aliyev's health began to fail in 1999, when he had a major heart bypass operation in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic. He later had prostate surgery and a hernia operation. He suffered a collapse while giving a speech on live television in April 2003. On 6 August Aliyev returned to the United States for treatment for congestive heart failure and kidney problems. He stood down from the presidency at the start of October 2003, but in an extremely controversial move appointed his son Ilham as his party's sole presidential candidate. On 12 December 2003, President Heydar Aliyev died in the Cleveland Clinic. He was buried at the Fakhri Khiyaban (The Alley of Honor) cemetery in Baku.

Ilham Aliyev duly won the presidential election of 15 October 2003 but international observers again criticized the contest as falling well below expected standards. This transfer of power became the first case of top-level dynastic succession in the former Soviet Union......."Source

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