Sheinbaum reiterates the request to the Spanish Crown to apologize for the “atrocities” of the conquest

MADRID 13 Oct. () –

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, recalled that her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, urged the Spanish Crown to apologize for the “atrocities” during the Spanish conquest of America.

“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked, at the time, the Spanish Crown to apologize for the atrocities that were committed during the conquest,” Sheinbaum recalled this Saturday, October 12, during an event on the municipal esplanade of Nezahualcóyotl, in the State of Mexico, according to the Mexican newspaper ‘El Universal’.

The president has thus claimed that “America already had great cultures” and that “no one discovered us.” “For a long time it was said: it was a very peaceful meeting, it was not peaceful at all, there were massacres in Cholula, in the Templo Mayor,” he argued.

Sheinbaum has also defended the influence of indigenous American cultures. “We make our country great thanks to the original cultures, so no one discovered us. There was already a Mexico here before. It was later called Mexico, yes, but here there were great cultures and it must be said here, in honor of that man that is there, that is the great Nezahualcóyotl, that gives strength to this great people, to this great history, of Mesoamerica”, he pointed out.

Previously, Sheinbaum had published a message on the social network

“October 12 is not the day of race or Hispanicity (…). Offering apologies for the crimes committed is not shameful; on the contrary, it magnifies and brings people together,” argued Sheinbaum in a message that It is accompanied by a video in which it recalls that countries such as Portugal, France, Japan and Germany have apologized for past crimes.

The video that accompanies Sheimbaum’s message points out that “offering apologies for crimes against humanity is a historical responsibility, a way of seeking reconciliation and overcoming past grievances.” “With this, the right to truth and dignity that peoples and social groups have are recognized,” the video highlights.

Specifically, it mentions Japan’s public apologies “for abuses committed in Korea and China”, the forgiveness that the President of Germany asked for in 2000 before the Israeli Parliament “for Nazi crimes in the Jewish Holocaust” or Italy’s apologies to Libya 2008.

He highlights that Mexico has also apologized to the Mayan people, the Yaki people and the Chinese community “for acts of violence and discrimination” and recalls the apology for the Tlatelolco plaza massacre in 1968. “These examples confirm that offering apologies for grievances of the past allows historical wounds to be resolved and liberates both those who offer forgiveness and those who grant it,” the recording argues.