An unusual bidding war in Mexico City for a statue of Fidel Castro and another of Che Guevara.

The seat that the statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara used to share in Mexico City's Tabacalera Garden is now empty. Some people left signs on the wood. One reads "Here goes Fidel" over an arrow pointing to the bench. Next to it, another indicates where Che used to sit. And below, a third sign reads: "Here goes hope." The statues were removed without permission, and now the controversy is brewing.

The Mexico City government reported that the statues were removed at the request of residents for allegedly violating permits. However , the removal was ultimately illegal , as it was not approved by the Committee on Monuments and Artistic Works in Public Spaces.

In a statement, the Mexico City government explained that the installation of the work was submitted to the Committee in 2017, which approved the placement of the statues of both figures, created by artist Óscar Ponzanelli, on the well-known "Che and Fidel Bank," located in the Tabacalera neighborhood of the central Cuauhtémoc borough.

In this regard, he pointed out that the decision by city authorities to remove the sculptures was made "without the corresponding legal authorization."

He explained that the committee, composed of the National Institutes of Fine Arts and Literature, Anthropology, and History, various departments of the capital's government, as well as civil society organizations, has the power to issue opinions and recommendations on requests for the installation, relocation, or removal of historical monuments.

However, he said that the Secretariat of Planning, Territorial Planning, and Metropolitan Coordination, the agency that chairs the committee, has not received any formal request from the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office to remove the sculpture called "Encuentro."

"Therefore, the removal of the sculpture is outside of established standards," he noted, adding that the Secretariat will closely follow up on the case .

The Mexico City government's reaction comes after news broke that statues of Castro and Che Guevara had been removed from a plaza in the Tabacalera neighborhood, where they lived in Mexico prior to the Cuban Revolution , following a request from residents, according to Cuauhtémoc Mayor Alessandra Rojo de la Vega.

According to the official, "Neither 'Che' nor Fidel requested authorization to settle in Cuba... and neither did Fidel at the Tabacalera. But here the law is upheld. Free Cuauhtémoc."

The mayor claimed the statues were installed improperly and the men should not be honored, calling them "murderers" who "still represent so much pain," according to a New York Times article.

Following the removal, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum , leader of the leftist Morena party, requested that the capital's government, headed by Clara Brugada, coordinate with the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office for their relocation.

Sheinbaum called the removal "total intolerance" and "illegal." She added that Rojo de la Vega's argument was "hypocritical," given that the mayor had been on vacation in Cuba.

Meanwhile, the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez Costa, wrote in a message on X that "the true Revolution is not made of stone or bronze: it is a transformed consciousness, the collective will to fight and build a more just world."

"Let us remember Fidel's concept of Revolution: ...there is no force in the world capable of crushing the power of truth and ideas," he added.