Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday that he would make a “deep claim” so that Spain ‘pays’ reparations to indigenous peoples on the occasion of the conquest of America in 1492, celebrated on October 12, the Spanish national holiday.
“Venezuela wants, with a group of Latin American countries, to firmly demand that Spain pay reparations for the theft, plunder of our lands and slavery and the suffering our indigenous grandparents endured and our African grandparents”, he declared during his program “Con Maduro+”. The Venezuelan president made these statements after showing his support for the Caribbean countries which, according to some media, have agreed to ask the UK to pay billions of pounds in reparations for the slave trade.
Last month, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told the United Nations General Assembly that her country had joined the “growing chorus calling for the immediate proclamation of a second decade” to finish the job unfinished business and address the issue of reparations for colonialism.
“All Caribbean countries are our friendss. We love each other, we love each other deeply. (…) We accompany the Caribbean in their fight and demand that London recognizes and pays the historic reparations to which the heirs of the slaves forcibly brought by torture and kidnapping from Africa are entitled,” declared the Venezuelan president.
Maduro this week doubled down on his criticism of Spain’s national holiday: “They go out on October 12 to celebrate Columbus Day, Spain Day. They couldn’t get another day, because the 12 October for all America, especially for our America, This is the day when genocide, extermination, slavery and colonialism began.. It is not a day to celebrate, nor the day of Spain, nor the day of nothing. “It’s the day of blood, of death, of slavery,” he said recently.
Nicolás Maduro calls Feijóo a “Francoist” and “fascist”
On the other hand, Maduro also attacked the PP leader, calling him a “Francoist” and “fascist” and again linked him to alleged acts of corruption. “You are a Francoist, a fascist who overflows with corruption and absurdities every time he talks about Venezuela,” he expressed in his weekly show.
“Núñez Feijóo, we are civilization, you are barbarismthey were, are and will be barbarism. Yesterday you were colonialism, today you are fascism, you are Francoism,” he continued. Maduro extended these adjectives to the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and to the president of VOX party, Santiago Abascal, whom he also described as “barbarians” and “murderers”.
