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Rio de Janeiro, Jan 31 (EFE).- Responding to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's request for a monument to South American liberator Simon Bolivar, a famed Brazilian architect has presented his plans for a towering cement statue shaped like an arrowhead and pointing at the United States, the Brazilian press reported Wednesday.
The 99-year-old Oscar Niemeyer unveiled the papier-mache model of the monument to Rio daily O Globo, along with a short commentary about the work that - if accepted by Chavez - will be erected somewhere in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
To be surrounded by a reflecting pool, the work will be an attempt to break "the world record for a raised, reinforced cement" structure and will be situated next to a museum in honor of the 19th century leader, who is a hero to Chavez and many members of the Venezuelan military, the newspaper said.
Described by the architect as a combination of "pure and simple shapes and dimensions," the model photographed by the daily consists of a red spiral curve that skims the surface of small pool and ends at the base of type of sloping pyramid, which resembles an arrowhead or a spaceship.
"I knew that a monument to Bolivar had to (evoke) the greatness of that revolutionary figure who is so beloved in Venezuela and the other countries of Latin America," Niemeyer said in his commentary.
"And the idea that occurred to me of a long triangle pointing overseas excited me. I designed it to be 100 meters (330 feet) high and 170 meters long," the architect said.
"For some it was a little bit of an aggressive shape, (but) for me it is justified by the political moment we're experiencing in Latin America, with Venezuela leading that resistance movement to (George W.) Bush's aggressions," said Niemeyer, a communist best known for designing the principal buildings of Brasilia, Brazil's futuristic capital.
The leftist Chavez, re-elected late last year to another six years in office, and the Bush administration have been on frosty and ever-worsening terms since the Venezuelan accused U.S. officials of playing a role in an abortive April 2002 coup against him.
According to Niemeyer, the monument emerged from comments Chavez made during a Jan. 19 visit to the architect's home in Rio de Janeiro after taking part in a presidential summit of the South American trade bloc Mercosur.
"I don't know why but I got the idea the next day to (make the design)," Niemeyer said. EFE
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