- Mexico: López Obrador asks Felipe VI that Spain apologize for the conquest
- History: Hero, writer and entrepreneur: Hernán Cortés against his black legend
- Tenochtitlan. When Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma
The president of Mexico , Andrés Manuel López Obrador, believes he has found in the Spanish Conquest the origin of the bleeding corruption that has affected his country to this day. During his usual morning conference before the media, the Mexican leader has rejected corruption as part of the national culture. "Something absurd and offensive," rather, as he points out, you have to go back 500 years to see "how it begins . "
In a preview of 'Towards a moral economy' , the book he will publish in the coming months, López Obrador points out that "the conqueror Hernán Cortés just landed in Veracruz and without any legal basis - because that can be proven, there was no legal basis - became mayor, was the first fraud and head of the invading army . "
Bypassing any historical episode prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, such as the documented abuses of the Aztec empire with respect to the towns that populated Mesoamerica, López Obrador once again links this historical process as the origin of many of the country's ills . It is not the first time that the president stars in an episode of historical revision, the first one arrived eight months ago, when he demanded by letter a controversial apology, from the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church, towards the indigenous peoples of Mexico for the abuses committed during the Conquest.
Now, López Obrador relies on the memories of the conqueror Bernal Díaz del Castillo , to reinforce his thesis. "This soldier denounced that the distribution of Moctezuma's treasure was irregularly verified, because before the distribution, before they distributed it, I quote what Bernal says: 'the third part of it was missing, that they took it and hid it on the part of Cortés as the captains' ". This historical episode documented by Bernal assumes, as the Mexican president believes, the "initial moches" test (as the 'bites' are known in Mexico).
The historical exposition of the president before the media extended during several minutes in which he denounced that "during the Colony, well, there are other cases. This continues in the independent Mexico"; He also took the opportunity to cite episodes such as the 'Porifiriatus' , a historical period as the 30-year-old government of the military Porfirio Díaz is known . If for López Obrador the origin of corruption in Mexico came aboard the ships commanded by Hernán Cortés, the continuity of these fraudulent practices during the subsequent 500 years is explained by "neoliberal policies . "
One of the most repeated maxims by the Mexican president has been that with his coming to power "the corruption ends" that had prevailed during the previous six years. To exemplify this change, López Obrador denounced on Tuesday the suspicious predilection of former presidents, such as Felipe Calderón or Enrique Peña Nieto , towards Spanish companies. "What was not in the past governments favorite companies? We have already said it here, but at the time of Calderón the favorite company was a Spanish company. Repsol was the main one and in the past six years (that of Peña Nieto) OHL , another Spanish company The OHL company won contracts to national companies such as Slim. "
The denunciations of López Obrador regarding the Conquest and the current investment of Spanish companies in the country follow the same guiding thread that has already ceased to surprise - by repetition - but that does not stop worrying about the background of the message. For the president, the existence of serious social problems in contemporary Mexico (such as corruption or inequality) are either imported, or the product of alliances between large foreign companies and former leaders who opted for the same neoliberal model that he aspires to banish from Mexico once and for all.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- Mexico
- Enrique Peña Nieto
ENTREPRENEURS The Amodio brothers, the rescuers of Villar Mir arrive from Mexico
Crisis of listeriosis Meat industry, the other 'outbreak' caused by Listeria that does not remit
Courts The brother of Ximo Puig, cited as investigated for possible fraud in subsidies of the Generalitat to his companies