UPDATE - Mexican President Demands Spain's Apologies For Abuses During Conquest, Colonial Period

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2019) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he had sent a letter to Spanish King Felipe VI, demanding apologies for massacres committed against the indigenous population during the conquest of Mexico and the colonial period.

"It was an invasion, many injustices were committed, there was a subjugation of the peoples who lived in the place that we now know as our America. I have sent a letter to the King of Spain and another letter to the Pope urging to ask the indigenous peoples for forgiveness for abuses of what is now known as human rights. There were murders, ... the conquest was done with the sword and the cross, and churches were placed on top of [indigenous] temples," Obrador said Monday in a video message dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Centla.

On his part, the Mexican president also intends to apologize.

"Because even after the end of the colonial period, there were many repressions against the Yaqui and Maya indigenous peoples, and even the extermination of the Chinese in Mexico during the Mexican revolution. We have to apologize," Obrador stressed.

The Battle of Centla was one of the first battles between Spanish conquistadors and the indigenous peoples. It took place in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco between Spanish forces led by Hernan Cortes and the Chontal Maya people.