Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alberes on Friday officially acknowledged the “suffering and injustice” that Spanish conquistadors inflicted on Mexico’s native peoples nearly five centuries ago.
“There was injustice, and it is absolutely right and appropriate to acknowledge and condemn it. It is part of our joint history. We can neither deny it nor forget it,” Alberes said at the opening of an exhibition of indigenous Mexican art in Madrid.
The exhibition was organized at the request of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Albares said it is “part of the path of justice and reconciliation that we are walking together; another milestone in our relations and our brotherhood.”
Sheinbaum called Alberes’ statement a “first step” in the right direction.
He said, “This is the first time that a member of the Spanish government has expressed regret for the injustice that has been done to them. This is important.” Apologizing, Sheinbaum said, was not an insult, but an act of true greatness on the part of governments and nations.
Meanwhile, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, leader of Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP), claimed he would “not be ashamed of the history of his country.”
He posted on Twitter that he was embarrassed by “the current situation for which Spain is condemned” by the current government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. “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 Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to the Spanish king demanding an apology for abuses committed during Spain’s 1519–1521 conquest of Mexico and the three centuries of colonial rule that followed.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry at the time rejected the request and there were tense relations between the two countries.
Spain’s King Felipe VI did not issue a public response to López 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 weapons made them virtually invincible in battles against the Aztecs, and the diseases they brought killed hundreds of thousands of indigenous people.
The main objective of the Spanish colonists was to gain power as well as gold and other resources in the New World. Pre-Columbian culture was suppressed, with temples making way for churches.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko