Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Friday officially acknowledged the “suffering and injustice” that Spain’s conquistadors meted out to Mexico’s indigenous people some five centuries ago.
“There was injustice, and it is merely right and fair to acknowledge and deplore this. It is part of our joint history. We can neither deny it nor forget it,” Albares said on opening an exhibition of indigenous Mexican art in Madrid.
The exhibition was organized at the request of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. It is part of the “path of justice and reconciliation that we are traveling together; another milestone in our relations and our brotherhood,” said Albares.
Sheinbaum described Albares’ statement as “the first step” in the right direction.
“This is the first time that a member of the Spanish government has given expression to regret over the injustices committed. That’s important,” she said. Apologizing was not humiliation, but rather conferred true greatness on governments and nations, Sheinbaum added.
Meanwhile, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP), claimed that he is “not going to be ashamed of my country’s history.”
He posted on X that what he is ashamed of “is the current situation to which Spain is condemned” by the current government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. “Let them apologize for what they are doing now,” the opposition leader said.
Has Mexico asked Spain to apologize before?
In 2019, Mexico’s then president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent a letter to Spanish king demanding an apology for abuses committed during Spain’s 1519-1521 Conquest of Mexico and the following three centuries of colonial rule.
The request was rejected at the time by Spain’s foreign ministry and strained relations between the two nations.
Spain’s King Felipe VI did not issue a public response to Lopez Obrador’s letter, while the Spanish government defended the nations’ “shared history” and rejected the notion of an apology.
Shortly after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, Spanish conquistadors committed extreme acts of cruelty during their conquest and colonization of what is now Mexico.
Their advanced weaponry made them nearly invincible in battle against the Aztecs, and the diseases they introduced killed hundreds of thousands of indigenous people.
The main aim of the Spanish colonizers was to acquire gold and other resources, along with power in the New World. The pre-Colombian culture was repressed, with temples making way for churches.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
