Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has publicly recognised the “pain and injustice” inflicted by his country on Mexico’s indigenous peoples during the colonial era, in remarks seen as a rare gesture of historical reconciliation between the two nations.

Speaking at the opening of an exhibition of Mexican art created by indigenous women in Madrid on Friday (October 31), Albares said Spain’s shared history with Mexico had both “light and darkness,” and it was important to acknowledge the injustices of the past.

“As in every human story, it has had light and darkness. There has also been pain — pain and injustice towards the indigenous people we dedicate this exhibit to,” he said. “Recognising this today is just, and to lament it, because that is also part of our shared history, and we cannot deny it or forget it.”

The exhibition commemorates the rich cultural contributions of indigenous communities, five centuries after Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés overthrew the Mexica (Aztec) Empire in 1521, ruling the territory as a colony until Mexico’s independence in 1821.

Albares also expressed gratitude toward Mexico for its solidarity during a darker chapter in Spain’s own history. “Spain will never forget and we will never stop thanking the Mexican people and the government of Lázaro Cárdenas for welcoming the Spanish exiles who found the freedom denied to them by the Spanish dictatorship on the other shore of the ocean that unites us,” he said, earning applause from the audience.

In Mexico City, President Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed Albares’s remarks, calling them “a dignified act” and saying that “forgiveness makes nations great.”

The issue of Spain’s colonial legacy has long been sensitive in Mexican–Spanish relations. In 2019, then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to Spain’s King Felipe VI urging the country to apologise for the violence and “massacres” committed during the conquest. Spain’s foreign ministry rejected the call at the time, saying that events from five centuries ago “cannot be judged in light of contemporary considerations.”

Albares’s statement marks one of the most conciliatory acknowledgements from a Spanish government official to date — signalling a shift toward greater openness and reflection on the shared, and often painful, history that continues to shape relations between Spain and Latin America.

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