Different folks love different symbols.  In Lima, Peru, is a large equestrian statue of the Father of *their* country - Francisco Pizarro!  

In modern terms, he was an illiterate thug, thief, and genocidal murderer.  :-/  

In Ulaanbaator, I understand there is a large statue of Chinngis Khan - a hero to the Mongolians.  (Although much less so to the Chinese, Koreans, and various Eurasian peoples ...)