Venezuela's President, Nicolás Maduro, announced on Monday that he will make a "deep claim" for Spain to "pay" reparations to the indigenous peoples due to the 1492 conquest of America, celebrated on October 12, the Spanish national holiday.
"Venezuela wants, along with a group of Latin American countries, to make a deep claim for Spain to pay reparations for the theft, looting of our lands, slavery, and suffering that our indigenous and African grandparents endured," he stated during his program 'Con Maduro+', as reported by Europa Press.
The Venezuelan leader made these statements after expressing his support for the Caribbean countries that, according to some reports, have agreed to demand from the United Kingdom the payment of billions of pounds as reparations for the slave trade.
Last month, Barbados' Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, told the UN General Assembly that her country had joined the "growing chorus calling for the immediate proclamation of a second decade" to complete unfinished work and address the issue of reparations for colonialism.
"All Caribbean countries are our friends. We love each other, deeply. (...) We stand with the Caribbean in their struggle and demand for London to acknowledge and pay the historical reparations owed to the people who are descendants of slaves forcibly brought through torture and abduction from Africa," stated the Venezuelan president.
This week, Maduro has intensified his criticism of Spain's national day: "They come out on October 12 to celebrate Columbus Day, Spain's Day. They couldn't find another day because October 12 for all of America, especially for our America, is the day when the genocide began, extermination, slavery, colonialism. It's not a day to celebrate, neither Spain's Day nor any day. It's a day of blood, death, slavery," he recently declared.