Sadly, it is typical of Latin America. It has been like that since the first Spaniards set foot in the New World.
And it goes back further --- look how the Aztecs ruled over the other Indians --- they enslaved many of them and even sacrificed them on their altars to their blood-thirsty god. The Spaniards to many of the Indians were just another tribe more powerful than the Aztecs but with a more benign God.