AMLO Considers Asking the UN for the Return of Heritage Objects

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that he would consider asking the United Nations (UN) to return all the objects that are the heritage of the country's history.

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"The nations that currently have these pieces refuse to give it back," Obrador pointed out during a press conference. This as the country gets ready to celebrate the Spanish conquest's 500 anniversary and two centuries of its independence next year.

The president is also known as AMLO, remarked that he is "seriously thinking of presenting an initiative at the UN so that all this historical heritage can be returned to the people from whom these pieces originated."

Mexico's government is negotiating with a series of countries, including Germany and Italy, the possibility of exhibiting some of these pieces in 2021 as part of the expected nationwide celebration.

However, AMLO underlined that keeping these pieces in foreign territory is part of a colonialist policy that the world can no longer afford." In this sense, the president highlighted that only an elite could access these antiques back in those countries, not the people. Therefore, the people's right to see them has to be guaranteed.

The president has also requested the Vatican for codices, documents, and ancient objects of Mexico's history, including Tenochtitlan's maps. In a letter, Obrador also asked the Pope for an apology over the rule of the Church during the colonization.