WASHINGTON 

Spain’s King Felipe VI has acknowledged that “abuses” were committed during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, in remarks that have stirred renewed debate over the country’s colonial past.

Speaking on Monday at Madrid’s National Archaeological Museum at an exhibition on indigenous women, Felipe said there had been “a lot of abuse” during the conquest of territories that later became Mexico, according to remarks reported by Spanish news outlet El Pais.

“There are things that, when we study them with present-day criteria … cannot make us feel proud,” he was quoted as saying in the presence of Mexico’s ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz.

The remarks marked the first time a Spanish monarch publicly recognized abuses tied to the colonial era, an issue that has strained relations between Madrid and Mexico in recent years.