Isabel Díaz Ayuso has unexpectedly canceled the remaining five days of her controversial trip through Mexico. The president of Madrid ends the tour by accusing the Mexican Government of boycotting, which she had previously accused of being a “narco-state” and of aligning itself with other Latin American dictatorships such as Cuba or Nicaragua. The controversy these days, however, has revolved around his story about the Conquest, a sensitive issue in the country and in relations with Spain, which had been strained for seven years, after Mexico demanded responsibility from the Monarchy for the abuses committed. Ayuso has insisted on reclaiming the figure of Hernán Cortés with a tribute in the Mexican capital, and the response on the Mexican left has been overwhelming.
The president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has responded to Ayuso on several occasions from the National Palace, which has generated a controversy between them that was abruptly settled this Friday, when the president’s team from Madrid announced that she was returning to Spain earlier than expected. According to them, the Mexican Government has threatened the organizers of the Platinum Ibero-American Cinema Awards, which will be presented on Saturday afternoon, with closing the tourist resort where the gala will be held if she participated. The organizers of the Platino have assured EL PAÍS that they have no evidence of these closure threats.
“The most serious thing happened to us this Friday,” they say from those around the president of the community. “The Government has even gone so far as to threaten to close the Xcaret complex. It seems truly outrageous to me,” they continue.
Xcaret, the tourist resort that has hosted these audiovisual awards since 2018, has “categorically denied” having received threats from federal or local authorities to boycott the awards ceremony. In a statement, the powerful consortium, for the “unfortunate statements” made by the Community of Madrid.
This has been the culmination of weeks of tension and exchange of words between the president of Madrid and Sheinbaum. “We have felt in danger. They have sent us protesters and they have tried to break up events. We have suffered a very hostile climate,” they say from the most intimate surroundings of the president of Madrid, who accuse Sheinbaum of “expelling her.”
The cancellation of Ayuso has fallen like a bucket of cold water in the middle of the press conference of the Argentine actor Guillermo Francella, honorary prize at the Platino Awards. The organizers have been taken by surprise by the decision of the Spanish politician, who issued a harsh statement at the same time that the actor spoke about his career in front of the press and the top staff of the awards, including Enrique Cerezo, the businessman and CEO of the company that organizes the contest.
Just a few minutes before the cancellation was known, Ayuso had the “right to come and speak.” “We are not going to restrict his freedom of expression. Now, I don’t think it will help whoever brought it, because it will not help him to talk about Hernán Cortés and the Conquest to win an election in our country,” he added, sparingly.
The president’s position has later been supported by the Ministry of the Interior (Interior). “At no time was there an attempt to avoid any of their public or private presentations. Mexico experiences total freedom that allows open debate of ideas,” the ministry says in a statement.
The Madrid expedition explains by phone that the atmosphere has been very tense since the president set foot in Mexico City. “We have only been here a week and President Sheinbaum has attacked the president’s trip daily; something totally unprecedented,” they say. According to their version, throughout the tour they have suffered the presence of activists from the Mexican Government who have tried to boycott Ayuso’s events.
They cite, for example, the moment in which a Morena councilor burst into an event in Aguascalientes before Ayuso took the floor to protest against those who had invited the president to the State and when she minimized the crimes of the Conquest (in a video recorded and uploaded to social networks it is seen that she addressed Ayuso in a calm manner). The deputy was not from the president’s party, but from the liberal party, Citizen Movement.
EL PAÍS has attended all the events of the tour and has not experienced that level of animosity. The protests have been rather small and without major incidents. The largest protest occurred on Monday, when several dozen representatives of indigenous communities gathered at the doors of the Mexico City cathedral to show their rejection of the tribute to Cortés, whom they consider a “symbol of the crimes against humanity” of the Conquest, as read in a statement. Finally, the event was moved to another point in Mexico City. Nor in Aguascalientes were there more than twenty who gathered at the doors of the local Congress to receive her with shouts of “fascist!” Even the councilor who prevented Ayuso from starting her speech in Agusacalientes did not have an aggressive attitude. The greatest criticism has come from social networks and with sympathies for Morena, the ruling party.
The criticism of Ayuso that has intensified from the left has resonated more strongly due to the lukewarmness with which the Mexican right has welcomed the Madrid president. The speech in which he frames the period of the Conquest, which he describes as an event that not only brought violence to America, but was accompanied by a civilizing process, does not find anyone to embrace it in Mexico, nor in the opposition to Claudia Sheinbaum, who has not dared to break the national consensus on that issue to stand up to the criticism of the Spanish tour. The tribute to Hernán Cortés on the first day has set the tone for the entire week and has left the right-wing parties in a difficult position, with whom Ayuso had various meetings that have not finished shining due to the controversy that was dragging on from behind.
