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INTERN A TION AL
Spanish right attacks Biden over Columbus and conquests

Spanish right-wing politicians are rebuffing calls for In Latin America, smallpox and other diseases brought
Spain to apologise for dark chapters in its colonial by Europeans wiped out huge numbers of indigenous
past and have scorned US President Joe Biden's people, facilitating the settlers' conquests. Their
recent acknowledgement of the atrocities suffered
by indigenous peoples. superior weaponry enabled them to inflict massacres
The leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), despite their relatively small numbers.
Pablo Casado, described Spain's colonial expansion
to the Americas as "the most important event in In North America, the settlers' technological advantages
history after the Roman empire", on the eve of Spain's were similarly key to driving indigenous people from
12 October holiday marking Christopher Columbus's
1492 arrival in the New World. their homes and seizing their land.
"Does the kingdom of Spain have to apologise
because five centuries ago it discovered the New VIDEO: The truth about Christopher Columbus
World, respected those who were there, created
universities, created prosperity, built entire cities? I How Christopher Columbus became
don't think so," Mr Casado said in a video posted on a hate figure for many online
Twitter.
His comments came after President Biden, in a
message to mark the US Columbus Day holiday, Italian American groups file
said the explorer's arrival had led to "a wave of Columbus Day lawsuit
devastation" for Native Americans and he urged
Americans not to "bury these shameful episodes of
our past". The leader of Spain's far-right Vox party, Santiago
He issued a proclamation to make the 11 October Abascal, denounced Mr Biden as "the lamentable
US holiday Indigenous Peoples' Day, alongside the president of the United States".
existing Columbus Day He added: "He has just attacked the great masterpiece

A 1753 depiction of Columbus arriving in the Caribbean of the Spanish conquest: the evangelisation.

GETTY IMAGES
"How proud we can feel about what our ancestors did,"
he said, describing the Spanish colonies as "the empire
of human rights".
Vox, the third-largest party in parliament, frequently
asserts Spain's historical importance, for example

harking back to Catholic forces' defeat of Muslim
adversaries during the Middle Ages.

The Catalan separatists' attempt to create their
own independent state in recent years appears to
have fuelled nationalist feeling in much of Spain,
encouraging some to take a boldly unapologetic view
of the country's history.

@BBC @CNN International @euronews

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