Various communities, groups, organizations and individuals that make up the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) have rejected an apology issued by Mexico’s president to the indigenous Mayan people for the wrongs committed against them over more than five centuries.
The symbolic act by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took place in the small community of Tihosuco in the state of Quintana Roo, and was described by indigenous leaders as “false” and “cynical,” since they claim the federal government continues to ignore the real needs of Mexico’s native communities, and continues to plow on with a contentious tourist train project – the Tren Maya – that has divided opinion in the region.
“We apologize to the Mayan people for the terrible abuses committed by individuals and national and foreign powers during the Conquest, the three centuries of colonial rule and the two centuries of independent Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said in a prepared statement. He made a particular reference to the 1847-1901 Caste War revolt in which around 250,000 Mayan people are reckoned to have perished.
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