A DELEGATION from an indigenous rebel group is set to mark the 500th anniversary of the conquest of Mexico in Madrid next Friday.

Seven members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an armed liberation socialist movement based in the southern state of Chiapas, set sail from Mexico on May 3 on a mission to “invade” Spain to mark the 1521 conquest on August 13.

After close to 50 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean, stopping off in Cuba along the way, the group arrived into Vigo in Galicia, Spain, on June 22.

But the Zapatistas, as the rebels are commonly called, said in a statement at the time that they had not come “to threaten, reproach, insult or demand.”

Rather they seek to “tell the Spanish people two simple things. One, they did not conquer us; we are still here resisting, in rebellion. Second, they do not have to ask that we forgive them for anything.”

The Zapatistas also hope to build relations with anti-capitalist activist groups across Europe.