The government of Spain has “vigorously” rejected a request from Mexican President López Obrador that it apologize for its conquest of Mexico.

López Obrador today published a video in which he advised that he had written both the king of Spain and Pope Francis asking that they apologize for the indignities suffered by the native peoples during the period of the Spanish conquest.

“I sent a letter to the king of Spain and the pope to ask that they make an account of the injustices and apologize to the indigenous peoples for the violations of what are now known as human rights. There were killings, impositions, the so-called conquest was carried out with the cross and the sword.”

The president said he, too, intended to ask the indigenous people for forgiveness, pointing out that they suffered from repression and extinction after the conquest. He cited the Yaquis of Sonora and the Mayas of the Yucatán peninsula in particular.

The year 2021, López Obrador said, will be known as the Year of Historic Reconciliation when Mexico celebrates 200 years of independence and 500 years since the taking of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.

But it appears Spain will not be part of it.

Its government said in a brief statement that it regretted that Mexico’s president had made public the letter to Felipe VI, whose contents “we vigorously reject.”

“The arrival 500 years ago of the Spaniards on territory that is now Mexican cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations,” the statement said.

It noted that the Spanish and Mexican people have always regarded their shared past without anger and from a constructive perspective, “as free people with a common legacy and an extraordinary future.”

Source: Milenio (sp)