‘They have never asked forgiveness’: Venezuelan leader demands reparations from Spain for ‘atrocities committed during barbaric colonisation of South America’

SPAIN should pay up reparations for ‘atrocities committed during the colonial period’, according to Venezuela’s leader.

Nicolas Maduro, who ‘won’ re-election in July in an election tainted with widespread allegations of fraud, announced his intention to demand money from Spain during a television broadcast.

The strongman claimed the European nation had never apologised or acknowledged the suffering it caused and accused Spain of hiding behind ‘the ideology of negationism’ to avoid accountability.

”Five hundred and thirty two years ago there was a process of resistance against colonialism and slavery, which left Nazism and fascism as a legacy.

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“None of them have asked for forgiveness, they take refuge in the ideology of negationism.

“From Spain this barbaric event is endorsed and vindicated as a process of civilization,” Maduro claimed. 

Coming just days after the remains of Christopher Columbus were confirmed to be resting in Sevilla cathedral, he called the voyages that discovered the Americas ‘acts of brutality rather than exploration’.

He also supported various Caribbean nations pursuing reparations from former colonial powers, such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands, for the historical exploitation of native populations through slavery and plunder.

Maduro’s push for reparations echoes similar initiatives in Mexico under President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who have railed against ‘ the looting, plundering, and slavery against the country’s native peoples.’