"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.
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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.
Mexico's capital is filled with pre-Hispanic ruins. In October 2006, archaeologists found a 15th-century Aztec altar and a stone idol in Tenochtitlan, the then-capital of the Aztec empire.
The Aztecs, who lived in central Mexico between 14th- 16th centuries AD, were a warlike and deeply religious people, who ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.
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