The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

López Obrador: "The media and intellectuals made fun of the proposal to Spain to apologize for the conquest"

2021-07-14T17:03:25.311Z


The Mexican president criticizes the "arrogance" with which his letter to the King was received in 2019 and defends "good relations" between the two peoples


López Obrador during the request for forgiveness for grievances to the Mayan people, on May 3.

Months after reaching the presidency, Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked the Spanish monarch that Spain apologize for the excesses and excesses that the conquest caused in what is now Mexico. The controversy was capitalized, origin of a diplomatic conflict that, finally, did not happen to majors. But that chapter persecutes the Mexican president, who is questioned about him on numerous occasions, especially this year, which is when the fifth centenary of the foreign invasion that arrived with blood and fire to the heart of Tenochtitlan, the current capital of the country, is commemorated. country, in addition to 200 years of independence from the Spanish Crown. “There are those who say that what happened has already been forgotten, but there is a whole movement of people demolishing statues, in the United States, for example. Those feelings still exist.We sent a letter [to the King of Spain] in a respectful manner and they did not even have the grace to reply to it. They lacked humility, ”he said today, questioned by a journalist. The Government at that time did respond to the Mexican authorities.

More information

  • López Obrador assures in his letter to the King that the abuses of the conquest "still generate heated controversies"

  • López Obrador's diplomatic apology for the massacre of Chinese in 1911

The president still hurts that that letter in which he proposed a joint pardon at the highest level between the Mexican and Spanish governments in order to "build a reconciliation with the country's past" was taken "with arrogance" and "made mockery of the proposal ”. He has worked for his part in recent months on those "gestures" of internal reconciliation. The Mexican government has apologized to the Chinese people, massacred in Torreón (Nuevo León) in 1911. And also to the Mayans, harshly eliminated in the Caste war in the Yucatan peninsula. The Yaquis are missing, also tortured and enslaved in the north of the country during the Porfiriato: 15,000 murdered who will also be asked for forgiveness.

Spain, however, did not consider the requested pardon necessary that March 2019. “They only leaked it to the press and the attacks on me and the government of pro-monarchical authorities and intellectuals began. Vargas Llosa, Arturo Pérez-Reverte and newspapers such as EL PAÍS, radio stations, televisions, all making fun of our request ”, the president recalled. "We only asked them that they were times of reconciliation to look to the future," says López Obrador.

The Spanish Government regretted the letter "deeply" after this newspaper published its existence. "We absolutely reject its content," said the Executive at the time. Josep Borrell, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, assured that the Government, "obviously", was not going to present "extemporaneous apologies". The petition ignited political controversy in Spain: the PP, Citizens and Vox criticize “In the same way that we are not going to ask the French Republic to present an apology for what Napoleon's soldiers did when they invaded Spain. Not even the French are going to ask the Italians to apologize for Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, "said the Foreign Minister, who reported on a conversation with his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard.

López Obrador said today that his Government also "recognizes what Spain and Europe contributed to Mexico, at that time and at other times." The president has insisted that they have nothing against the Spanish people, other than "brotherly respect." "The differences are only two, with the Government of Spain and with the leaders of some companies that have offended us a lot in recent times." He always mentions exclusively the Spanish women. "Not with all of them, he said, because relations" are very good and we are going to maintain them. Spain is the second commercial partner of Mexico, after the United States and "especially the financial sector, the banks, have a lot of presence" in the North American country. López Obrador has cited his good harmony with Ana Botín,the president of Banco Santander with whom he acquired the commitment upon his arrival in power that the rules of the game with the banks would be maintained. "We remain open to investment from Spain, as long as it is legal," he said.

Once again, he has pointed out who his black beasts are, Repsol, Iberdrola, DHL, "who were dedicated to looting and stealing in the neoliberal period with the support, of course, of the Mexican governments," he assured without presenting any proof of this.

“Mexico is not a land of conquest.

That is no longer going to be allowed ”, he has settled.

As the journalist has insisted on the matter, and on what to do to improve relations with Spain, the president has cut it this way: “There is no aversion towards the Spanish people, whom we respect very much.

But stealing is not allowed in Mexico, that's all ”.

The conquest of Mexico as well as the independence of Spain will continue to occupy a good part of the president's agenda this year.

But his claim to the Spanish Crown is understood by some as a political opportunism or a nationalism out of place and time.

That is not his perception and that episode of the letter to the King continues to visibly bother him.

Subscribe here

to the

newsletter

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of this country

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-14

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.