MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s president said on Tuesday he wanted no conflict with Madrid over his request for an apology for human rights abuses committed during Spain’s conquest of Mexico, and hinted he could seek similar gestures from other countries. FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador looks on during a meeting with industry bosses and members of his cabinet to discuss the new administration's policy on the minimum wage at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo During his regular news morning conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador brought up the letter he had sent the king of Spain seeking an apology for crimes against indigenous people when Spain claimed Mexico five centuries ago. To mark the 500th anniversary of the 1519-21 conquest, Lopez Obrador said he wanted a group of experts to review the events of that period to promote reconciliation and strengthen bonds between the two countries. “We won’t get into any confrontation with the government of Spain or any government,” said Lopez Obrador, whose December inauguration was attended by Spanish King Felipe VI. The relationship with Spain was not at risk, said Lopez Obrador, who during the conference stressed that he had not made the letter public. However, politicians in Spain responded in anger, with one calling it an “intolerable offense to the Spanish people.” Asked whether he would seek apologies from France or the United States for their historic interventions in Mexico, Lopez Obrador interrupted the question and said: “In time.” With the support of Mexican conservatives, France invaded Mexico in the 1860s and installed Maximilian, a member of the European Habsburg family, as emperor for three years. The United States has had several clashes with its southern neighbor, most notably during a 1846-1848 conflict which resulted in the occupation of Mexico City by U.S. forces and the loss of Mexico’s northernmost territories to the United States. Lopez Obrador, a veteran leftist, said that as head of state he would ask forgiveness for historic abuses and murders committed against indigenous Mexican peoples, including the Yaqui in the north of the country and the Maya in the south. “Power is humility,” he said. The president said he would also apologize for abuses committed against Chinese immigrants during the rule of dictator Porfirio Diaz, and in the conflict known as the Mexican Revolution that dominated the country after his ouster in 1911.<doc-sep>Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks during his daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on March 26th, 2019. (Photo: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images) On Monday, the president of Mexico announced that he had sent a formal letter to the king of Spain, asking the monarch to acknowledge and apologize for Spain's conquest of Mexico. In a video released on social media on Monday, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's president, stood next to his wife in front of the ruins of a Mayan pyramid in Tabasco, one of the country's southernmost states. Speaking to the camera, AMLO (as he is known in Mexico) explained that he and his wife had come to Centla—the Maya city whose ruins they stood among—to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the the battle the Chontal Maya fought against the forces of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. "There were massacres and oppression," AMLO says in the video. "The so-called conquest was fought with the sword and the cross. They built their churches on top of the temples." He then called on Spain to apologize for its role in the conquest, and to ask for forgiveness from Mexico's indigenous peoples. Spain immediately rejected AMLO's demand for an apology. In a statement issued on Monday, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote: The Spanish government profoundly regrets the publication of the Mexican president's letter to his majesty the king on March 1st and completely rejects its content. The arrival of the Spanish on Mexican soil 500 years ago cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations. Our closely related peoples have always known how to view our shared history without anger and from a shared perspective, as free peoples with a common heritage and an extraordinary future. This November will mark the 500th anniversary of the day the Aztec king Montezuma invited Cortés and his soldiers into Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital which was—with a population of 200,000—one of the largest metropolises in the world at the time. Though the Aztec greeted Cortés peacefully, the conquistador went on to besiege the city for 75 days, causing a famine that decimated the population. Cortés went on to level Tenochtitlán and begin building the Spanish colonial seat that would become Mexico City. After seizing control of the Aztec empire, the Spaniards quickly conquered the rest of what is modern-day Mexico, establishing an iron-fisted rule by 1525. Seeking to extract gold and other resources from their new colony, the Spaniards created the encomienda system, which was, in essence, a way of organizing plantation-style slavery to force indigenous people to labor in the mines and fields. For generations, indigenous people who survived the plague of European diseases worked as slaves, as the Spanish missionaries forced them to adopt Christianity and abandon many of their native customs. One of the most famous accounts of Spanish brutality comes from one of these missionaries. Bartolomé de las Casas, a Domincan friar, wrote about his experiences traveling through Spain's colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1517 in 1540 in his book, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies). Las Casas described the systematic torture, rape, and mutilation the Spaniards exacted on indigenous people in every colony he visited. "Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches," Las Casas wrote. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Human Rights calls Spain's invasion of the Americas the first large-scale genocide of the modern era. In the land that became Spanish colonies, at least eight million indigenous people were killed by Spanish massacres and European diseases. Across two continents, up to 95 percent of all people were killed. In contrast to the Spanish government's reaction to AMLO's request, Spain recently apologized for another historical crime of a similar age: In 2015, Spain's parliament approved a law creating a path to citizenship for Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492.<doc-sep>Some analysts have suggested that one possible reason for the letter might be López Obrador’s disappointment with how Spain has handled the 500th anniversary of Cortés’ arrival in Mexico. Spain’s government has not planned any major public events revisiting the dark side of the conquest, according to El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, and is instead focusing on the 80th anniversary of the Spanish exodus to Mexico, after the Spanish Civil War.<doc-sep>
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday he had asked the Spanish government and Pope Francis to apologize to indigenous Mexicans for wrongs committed during the Spanish conquest some 500 years ago. López Obrador said in a video shared on Facebook and Twitter he had written to Spain’s King Felipe VI about the matter. “I already sent a letter to the king of Spain and another letter to the Pope so that they ask forgiveness of indigenous peoples for violations of what are now known as human rights,” he said. Spain is one of Mexico’s biggest sources of foreign direct investment. The Mexican government has yet to ratify a new free trade deal reached with the European Union in April 2018. Speaking with his wife at an archaeological zone in the southeastern state of Tabasco, Lopez Obrador said the letter cited massacres that took place during the Spanish conquest at the beginning of the 16th century. “The churches were built above the temples, our patriotic heroes were excommunicated,” he said. “We are going to reconcile but first we ask for forgiveness.” Spain’s foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The ministry published a statement rejecting the contents of Lopez Obrador’s letter, according to domestic media. Reuters was not immediately able to obtain a copy of the statement. “The arrival 500 years ago of the Spanish on present-day Mexican territory cannot be judged in light of contemporary considerations,” the government said, according to Spanish media. “The government of Spain reiterates its willingness to work together with the government of Mexico.” FOLLOW NBC LATINO ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM.