Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador described Friday as a "
resounding failure
" the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire.
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“
This disaster, cataclysm, catastrophe, whatever name you want to give it, allows us to argue that the conquest was a resounding failure
,” said AMLO who was accompanied by representatives of indigenous peoples from Mexico, Canada and of the United States and descendants of Moctezuma II, the last Aztec emperor.
"Pardon the victims" of the conquistadors
AMLO also spoke of the diseases suffered by the Mexican natives following the arrival of the Spaniards, whom he accused of having seized large quantities of gold.
“
The gold they took in Mexico, during the 300 years
” that the Spanish colony lasted, “
was 182 tons,
” he said.
The leftist president recalled that he had on many occasions called on the Spanish government and monarchy to apologize for the massacres, looting and slavery to which the natives were subjected before the independence of Mexico (1810-1821 ).
Without ever having obtained a favorable response to this request, Lopez Obrador asked "
forgiveness from the victims of the catastrophe caused by the Spanish military occupation of Mesoamerica and the rest of the territory of what is now the Mexican Republic
".
"
What type of civilization can we talk about if the lives of millions of human beings are lost and the dominant nation, empire or monarchy fails, in three centuries of colonization, to recover the population that existed before? military occupation,
”added the president to Zócalo, Mexico City's central plaza, built on the remains of the largest temple of the Aztec empire.