The Mayor of Port of Spain says renaming a street in the capital city is easier than removing the statues of Christopher Columbus.

Some 8,000 votes have been garnered in a petitioned aimed at removing the statue of the country’s documented Spanish founder.

The group making the request visited Mayor Joel Martinez last week telling him Christopher Columbus should not be honored given the mass murder he perpetrated upon the indigenous peoples he met here when his ships landed.

A member of the group has even given a deadline of Wednesday evening for the statue of Columbus to be removed.

However during the Take Two program on i95.5fm yesterday Mayor Martinez explained while renaming a street is easy, removal of the statues is not.

Further his worship noted that because of the historical symbolism attached to the effigy impacts the country’s entire population and as a result cannot be lightly dismissed.