MEXICO CITY (AFP).- Mexico's historic sites watchdog was up in arms Wednesday after a colonial house was demolished to make room for a giant statue of revolution hero Pancho Villa near the site of his assassination.

The National Anthropology and History Institute ordered authorities in the city of Parral, in northern Chihuahua state, to suspend work after Saturday's destruction of the house, built in the 17th century and remodeled in the 1800s.

The house, which was a protected historic monument, is at the corner of Plaza Juarez, where Villa was shot dead while driving a car in 1923.

The destruction was ordered by the city as part of a project to expand the plaza and install the more than 20-meter (65-foot) tall statue of Villa riding a horse.

The history institute condemned the demolition, saying in a statement that it "did not give authorization to install the statue, as its size and dimensions negatively affect" the historic nature of the area.

The statue was donated in 2014 by a newspaper chain and authorities hope to inaugurate it on July 20, the 93rd anniversary of Villa's murder.

Villa, whose real name was Doroteo Arango, was one of the leading figures of Mexico's 1910 revolution, which began as an uprising against dictator Porfirio Diaz and led to the drafting of a constitution in 1917.

Villa was heading to house in Parral to attend a party when his vehicle was ambushed by gunmen, who also killed three of the mustachioed icon's bodyguards.



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