 Father Bartolomé de las Casas (1484–1566) did have extensive experience in Mexico and objected to Spanish colonization. In 1550–1551, he engaged in a famous debate with Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda about whether the indigenous people were fully human. Las Casas claimed that the natives were rational beings, not unlike Europeans, and should be considered fully human with the same right to be protected under natural law, to choose their own form of government, and to be free. Consequently, Las Casas believed that Spaniards did not have the right to enslave or otherwise rule them. The ideas of Las Casas proved crucial in the Laws of the Indies (1542), which required certain protections of indigenous people of the Americas.