Source: Liberty Times on
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Christopher Rodriguez, a criminal defense
lawyer from Florida, admitted that he shot, and missed, his
explosive target outside the Chinese embassy in D.C.He succeeded with a similar method in San Antonio in 2022.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost)
August 3, 2024
Florida lawyer Christopher Rodriguez, who attempted to detonate a bomb outside the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. last year but failed, also vandalized a satirical sculpture of Mao Zedong and Lenin in San Antonio, Texas. After pleading guilty on the 2nd of this month, he faces a sentence of 7 to 10 years.
According to a report by the Associated Press, on September 25, 2023, Rodriguez drove from Florida to Washington D.C. and then took a taxi to the area near the Chinese embassy. After exiting the taxi, he placed a black backpack containing 15 pounds (approximately 6.8 kilograms) of explosives 12 feet away from the embassy’s fence.
Rodriguez attempted to shoot the backpack with a rifle to detonate the bomb but missed. After he left, U.S. Secret Service agents immediately discovered the suspicious black bag, and he was arrested on November 4 in Lafayette, Louisiana.
In addition to this case, in November 2022, Rodriguez had rented a car to drive to San Antonio, Texas, climbed over a fence to enter an empty area, placed explosives next to the satirical artwork “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head,” and then climbed onto a nearby rooftop to shoot at it, causing damage to the sculpture.
A Florida attorney pleaded guilty Friday to
detonating an explosive under a sculpture at the Texas Public Radio
headquarters in San Antonio in 2022.— KENS 5 (@KENS5)
August 2, 2024
“Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head” sculpture, Public Domain Image from Flickr
It is understood that “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head” is a work by Beijing dissident artists Gao Xiang and Gao Qiang, depicting a woman resembling Mao Zedong carefully standing on Lenin’s head, holding a balance pole similar to that used in tightrope walking, satirizing the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Communist Party.
On the 2nd of this month, Rodriguez admitted to charges of destruction of foreign government property, using explosives to destroy federal property, and possession of an unregistered firearm. Sentencing is expected to take place in a Washington D.C. court on October 28, with a possible sentence ranging from 7 to 10 years.
Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico, served in the U.S. Army, and later resided in Panama City, Florida. The case announcement released by the U.S. Department of Justice did not specify his motives for the crimes.
