The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, sent a letter to the King of Spain, Felipe VI, in which he expressed his «indignation» that the European country still celebrates the conquest of America, a fact that he described as «the greatest genocide and «ethnocide» recorded in history.
In the 10-page letter, the Venezuelan president considered “unacceptable that in the XXI century a nation that prides itself on being civilized worships the worst of its past: robbery, plunder, racism and hate crimes, committed during more than three centuries of occupation of the territory of Abya Yala by the Spanish empire».
Maduro demanded from the king to explain how it was possible that after 529 years of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America, Spain continues to call this fact the «discovery» and celebrates «the arrival and forced presence» of «one of the bloodiest conquests» in history, reports RT.
«The celebration of such events can only be understood by the countries that resisted the invasion as a glorification and reaffirmation of the most atavistic racism», warned the president, who also launched a wake-up call because of the «resurgence of supremacism and fascism», that – in his opinion – is more clearly evidenced by the appearance of far-right political parties, which «seek to minimize and falsify the events that occurred during the so-called conquest of America in the 15th century».
On this, he regretted that in Spain people continue to speak arrogantly of the «Hispanic civilization» project, trying to establish, as a fact that in America there were no languages, cultures and deep-rooted civilizations.
Venezuela denounces: «It is a crime against humanity»
Maduro recalled that the arrival of the Spaniards to the American continent caused the death of millions of people, as well as the eradication of their cultures, political systems, languages, sciences, religions, and institutions, which were never respected by the settlers.
For this reason, he stressed that October 12, the Day of the Race, or of the Discovery or of the Hispanic Culture is not celebrated, but the Day of Indigenous Resistance, as a symbol of the fight against the different settlers and empires that have tried to subdue the Indo-Americans is what is celebrated.
«Europe must recognize that its modernity and its vertiginous industrial, commercial and financial growth, that is to say, the rise of Western capitalism, had its foundations in a crime against humanity against the peoples of Indo-America and Africa, and in a material dispossession of their riches that began on October 12, 1942″, denounced the president of Venezuela in the letter.
In addition, he considered it necessary for Spain to recognize the extermination of 90 million people, through massacres, forced displacements, wars, slavery and new diseases that plagued the American continent with the arrival of the colonists; and he denounced that those who refuse to recognize the genocide in Indo-America are the same ones who «go hand in hand with racism, xenophobia and supremacism».
“The slave trade kidnapped, expatriated and enslaved close to 50 million Africans. These are figures that exceed the holocausts and wars caused and suffered by Europe in the 20th century», said Maduro, and warned that denying these facts also justifies the execution of «new holocausts».
«A rectification of ideas and opinions»
In the letter, the president of Venezuela highlights that his request to the Spanish monarchy is not only an apology, but a «rectification of ideas and opinions that, five centuries later, seem more foolish and vile», in view of the «forgetfulness and minimization of these atrocious events».
Along these lines, he accompanied the proposal made this year by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to reconstruct a shared account of these events. However, he asserted that his country also demands to revise «the historical truth» in a very sincere way and that the «excesses» of the colonization be recognized, in order to be able to move towards «a reconciliation of the parties in their common humanity».
For the Venezuelan president, the environment is propitious for the creation of a truth commission about the European occupation, from the 16th to the 19th century, which would allow to bridge «the gulf between the golden legend and the dark legend» about the conquest of America. If not addressed – Maduro pointed out – the dispute will continue to divide both peoples infinitely.
In this sense, he insisted that «only the truth, as a historical acceptance, only the recovered memory, only the recognition of that grave crime that occurred and also the recognition of the struggle and dignity (of the people that resisted the occupation)» can restore the brotherhood between Europe and America.
The Truth Commission proposed by Maduro, according to the letter, would be directed by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and made up of multicultural experts to build an unbiased version that, in his opinion, would silence the «new obscurantisms» and it would allow «to commensurate the facts, accept them, repair and incorporate them into the same shared history».
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