(Mexico City) The Mexican government officially apologized to the indigenous Maya on Monday for the errors committed against them since the Spanish conquest.
This apology, which coincides with 500 years of the conquest (the conquest of Mexico), was formulated at the initiative of the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his Guatemalan counterpart, Alejandro Giamatti, in the municipality of Felipe Carilo. Puerto, Quintana Roo.
“We apologize to the Maya people for the terrible violations committed by individuals and national and foreign powers during the conquest, three centuries of colonial domination and the two centuries of independent Mexico,” the Mexican president declared, referring in particular to sectarian warfare. In the 19th century.
Mayan uprising
This conflict corresponds to the uprising of enslaved Mayans in the Yucatan (southeast), which began in 1847 and ended in 1901, as the indigenous Maya opposed white and Mestizo.
During the ceremony, the Mexican government acknowledged the racism and discrimination that this ethnic minority continues to suffer two centuries after Mexico’s independence.
The construction of the Maya train, a major project of the current Mexican government, was mentioned during the ceremony and attracted residents’ attention.
In June 2020, Mr. Lopez Obrador gave the green light to build a 1,500-kilometer Maya train line that is slated to cross different parts of the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Cancun resort is located.
Many organizations reject the project, claiming that it would harm the environment and many indigenous communities in this area.