Mexican president praises Pancho Villa for his 1916 attack on Columbus, New Mexico that killed 18

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president is praising Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa for his 1916 attack on Columbus, New Mexico, a raid that killed 18 Americans, mostly civilians. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the attack “daring” and said “we should thank” Villa for it. Mexico has long honored Villa in government textbooks and monuments, but that was for his domestic role in the 1910-17 Revolution. The Columbus attack was mostly related to Villa’s personal disputes, not the Revolution, and previous Mexican administrations had remained mostly silent about it. López Obrador quoted his favorite historian Tuesday as saying the attack was “a symbol of resistance against imperialism.”