The President Of Mexico Requests The King Of Spain To Ask For Forgiveness For The Conquest

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is raising tremendous controversy after asking the King of Spain and the Pope to apologize for the Conquest of Mexico, which began 500 years ago with the arrival of Hernán Cortés.

The 65-year-old Tabasco president resorted to his social networks to report the matter and posted a video filmed next to the Mayan ruins of Comalcalco, located in his home state with his wife, Beatríz Gutiérrez Müller next to him.

"I already sent a letter to the King of Spain and the Pope so that an account of grievances can be made and forgiveness of the original peoples for the violations of what is now known as Human Rights," said El Peje - as they nickname him in Mexico-. As he explains, the intention is to make a kind of blur and new account of the events that occurred between 1519 and 1521 in view of the fifth centenary of the arrival of the bearded conqueror to Aztec lands.

“It was an invasion, there were killings, impositions, the so-called conquest was made with the sword and with the cross. Churches were built on top of temples, continued the Mexican president who, it should be noted, is the grandson of Spaniards who emigrated to Mexico.

Far from being a media strategy, the petition represents a diplomatic challenge that was initially rejected by the Spanish government, which "deeply regrets" and "firmly rejects" the argument of said letter, according to the newspaper El País.

This letter was sent to King Felipe VI but was channeled through the Foreign Ministry and it comes just two months after the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, made his first official visit to Mexico. The king of Spain also visited that nation a few months ago to attend the AMLO presidential inauguration.

And the thing does not stop there: López Obrador assures that he will also apologize to the Chinese immigrants who arrived in Mexico during the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship (19th century) and during the Mexican revolution, after his expulsion in 1911.

The Motherland is one of the largest sources of direct foreign investment in Mexico. In April 2018, both nations signed an agreement with the European Free Trade Union.