Spain acknowledges conquistadors’ wrongs against Mexico’s Indigenous peoples

According to Ukrinform, DW reported the news.

“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,” the report reads.

The Spanish official spoke at the opening of an exhibition showcasing the art of Indigenous Mexican communities in Madrid, where he declared: “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.”

The exhibition was organized with the support of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who noted that Albares was the first Spanish government official to express remorse and regret for the actions of Spanish conquerors on the American continent.

In 2019, former President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to the King of Spain, demanding an apology for the crimes committed during Spain’s conquest of Mexico between 1519 and 1521 and during the subsequent three centuries of colonial rule.

That request was rejected at the time by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation, which strained relations between the two countries.

As Ukrinform reported, in the summer of 2020, ruins of an Aztec palace were discovered in central Mexico City. Scholars believe the floor was part of the open area of the Palace of Axayácatl. After the fall of the Aztec Empire, the site became the residence of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, with researchers uncovering evidence of his presence there.

Photo: https://twitter.com/jmalbares