Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the indigenous peoples of Mexico had been the victims of massacres. Speaking in the ruins of an ancient city, he called for a full account of the abuses. Spain rejected his call and called for a "constructive perspective" instead. The territory which now makes up Mexico was under Spanish rule for some 300 years before gaining independence in the early 19th Century. At the time of the conquest, Spain was a fiercely Roman Catholic country and saw as its mission the spread of Christianity to regions such as the Americas.