Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday apologized for a 1911 massacre in which more than 300 Chinese were slaughtered by revolutionary troops in the northern city of Torreon.
The apology is the latest in a series of ceremonies in which Lopez Obrador has sought to make amends for the mistreatment of ethnic minorities in Mexico in past centuries.
Lopez Obrador said the point of the apology was to ensure “that this never, ever happens again,” adding that the Chinese were mutilated or hung from telegraph poles.
Photo: Reuters
“The discrimination was based on the most vile and offensive” stereotypes, Lopez Obrador said, adding “these stupid ideas were transferred to Mexico, where extermination was added to exclusion and mistreatment.”
Many Chinese laborers had emigrated to Mexico in the 1800s, in some cases to work on the expansion of the nation’s rail network, but many set up businesses, farms and in Torreon, even a bank.
The 1911 killings of 303 Chinese men, women and children occurred during the chaotic period of the Mexican Revolution, when revolutionary troops overran Torreon, sealing the fate of longtime ruler Porfirio Diaz. The loss of the city led Diaz to resign and leave for exile.
Like most racial killings, it was fed by suspicion, hatred, fear, envy and lies.
Torreon was a booming railway town and control of it was key to rail lines north to the US. Some Mexicans grumbled that Chinese were taking jobs or depressing wage rates; others were envious of the Chinese community’s economic success.
Between May 13 and 15, 1911, revolutionary troops took control of the city from Diaz’s army and, once inside the city, slaughtered many of it Chinese inhabitants, though some others hid or were saved by local residents.
The victorious revolutionary government of Mexican president Francisco Madero agreed to pay reparations for the massacre, but Madero himself was overthrown in 1913 and the payment was never made.
“It is during the most convulsive moments of history when these [racist ideas] get twisted into genocidal killings,” Coahuila Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme said.
Lopez Obrador, who usually lavishes praise on the 1910-1917 revolutionary movement, said that the movement also expressed anti-Chinese sentiments.
Historian Monica Cinco Basurto said the massacre was far from the only anti-Chinese act in Mexico. Looting of Chinese-owned businesses and the expulsion or forced departure of Chinese — often without recognizing their Mexican citizenship or that of their families — extended throughout northern Mexico into the 1930s.
Lopez Obrador was accompanied during the apology by Chinese Ambassador to Mexico Zhu Qingqiao (祝青橋).
Mexico has relied on China for about 10.5 million of the 29.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses received so far, or about 36 percent of all shots.
Zhu said the vaccines and medical equipment from China “have left a strong imprint on the history of relations between our two countries.”
Lopez Obrador said “we will never forget the brotherhood of the Chinese during the bitter and anguishing months of the pandemic.”
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS