Spain acknowledges conquistadors' guilt for crimes against Mexico's indigenous population

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares stated that his country "recognizes the suffering and injustice brought to the indigenous peoples of Mexico by the conquistadors. This is reported by DW, writes UNN.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares stated that his country recognizes the crimes committed by Spanish conquistadors in Mexico about 500 years ago.

The Spanish official spoke at the opening of an exhibition of art by indigenous Mexican communities in Madrid, where he stated: "There was injustice, and it is only right and just to recognize and condemn it. This is part of our shared history. We can neither deny it nor forget it."

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

Did Mexico ask Spain to apologize before?

In 2019, then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to the Spanish king demanding an apology for the abuses committed during the Spanish conquest of Mexico from 1519–1521 and throughout the subsequent three centuries of colonial rule.

At that time, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected this request, which caused tension in relations between the two countries.

King Felipe VI of Spain did not publicly respond to Obrador's letter, and the Spanish government defended the "shared history" of the two peoples and rejected the idea of an apology.

Soon after Christopher Columbus arrived in America, Spanish conquistadors committed brutal acts during the conquest and colonization of what is now Mexico.

Due to their superior weaponry, they were almost invincible in battles against the Aztecs, and the diseases they introduced wiped out hundreds of thousands of indigenous people.

The main goal of the Spanish colonizers was to gain gold, other resources, and power in the New World. Pre-Columbian culture was suppressed — temples were replaced by churches.

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