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All over Mexico, there are reminiscences of the Western 'involvement', or should I say 'monuments of barbarity'. Often, one has to search for them, or even read between the lines, in order to identify them.
Spanish conquest, inquisition, massive theft of land, natural resources, and then massacres, massacres, torture...
On 7. February 2016, Telesur reported:
"The Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacan, Mexico, accused the Catholic Church of being complicit in the killing of over 24 million Indigenous people.
"'Some 30 Indigenous communities of Michoacan, Mexico, have released a statement demanding Pope Francis apologize for the genocide committed with the complicity of the Catholic Church against their people during the Spanish invasion of the Americas in the 16th century.
"'For over 500 years, the original people of the Americas have been ransacked, robbed, murdered, exploited, discriminated and persecuted,' the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacan said in a statement."
Well, Pope Francis, any comments; at least some desire to speak about justice?
The United States invasion, and the grab of enormous Mexican territory:
"The Mexican War was instrumental in shaping the geographical boundaries of the United States. At the conclusion of this conflict, the U.S. had added some one million square miles of territory, including what today are the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, as well as portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada."
Reading what it says above, one would believe that this account would be followed by the expression of horror at what took countless lives of the Mexican people, and resulted in the theft of tremendous territory. But no; of course, no! This quote is from the introduction written by John S. Brown, Chief of Military History, to a brochure (the Occupation of Mexico May 1846 -- July 1848) described as being "produced by in the U.S. Army Center of Military History by Stephen A. Carney." Instead of apology and indignation, the further quote follows:
"The Mexican War lasted some twenty-six months from its first engagement through the withdrawal of American troops. Fighting took place over thousands of miles, from northern Mexico to Mexico City, and across New Mexico and California. During the conflict, the U.S. Army won a series of decisive conventional battles, all of which highlighted the value of U.S. Military Academy graduates who time and again paved the way for American victories. The Mexican War still has much to teach us about projecting force, conducting operations in hostile territory with a small force that is dwarfed by the local population, urban combat, the difficulties of occupation, and the courage and perseverance of individual soldiers."
The self-congratulatory, almost poetic language of both the brochure and the introduction to it sounds truly, as if it is trying to fit into a magic-imperialist realism. But it is not: it is just how history is taught in the United States, in Europe, and unfortunately, in many schools in the formerly and presently colonized countries.
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