The reception of the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaumto King Felipe VI in the National Palace will mark the end of the diplomatic thaw process that began after tensions between both countries due to what Mexico considered the lack of response, since 2019, to its request that Spain apologize for the Conquest of America. A demand championed by the former president Andrés Manuel López ObradorSheinbaum’s predecessor.
“It will be a cordial meeting. We are going to talk about the different topics. For my part, I want to explain what the recognition of indigenous peoplesits cultural greatness, the great civilizations of yesteryear and the native peoples of today,” the president said this Wednesday during her morning press conference. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 4:45 p.m. local time (00:45 a.m. on Friday Spanish peninsular time).
Both from Zarzuela and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose head, Jose Manuel Albareswill accompany the monarch at the meeting, the emphasis has been placed on the fact that “this trip is framed in a context of intensification of bilateral relations between both countries” and that it will allow strengthening “the ties of closeness and affinity that unite both peoples”.
World Cup trip
Felipe VI, whose visit coincides with his attendance at the World Cup match between Spain and Uruguay that will be played on Friday (early morning on Saturday in Spain) in the Mexican city of Guadalajarawill be received with full honors by Sheinbaum at the headquarters of the Mexican Government, in the iconic Zócalo of the capital.
Sheinbaum also valued as a “important gesture” the monarch’s recognition that there was “a lot of abuse” during the Conquest (which began in 1521), as he said in March during the tour of an exhibition in Madrid on indigenous women in Mexico.
The president returned the gauntlet with her trip to Spain to participate in the Progressive Summit in Barcelona in April, where she met with the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez. It was the first visit to Spain by a Mexican leader since Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), who did so in 2018 to end more than a decade of absence. “Although it is not the forgiveness that was requested at the time, it is progress,” Sheinbaum said.
Seven years of friction
The diplomatic tension originated in 2019, when the then Mexican president, López Obrador, asked the Spanish Crown to apologize for the abuses committed during the Conquest. The current president, from the same party as López Obrador and who is considered her political reference, recalled that that letter, which she described as private, was released publicly and later led, as she said, to “a campaign in Spain” against his predecessor.
The high point of the clash was Sheinbaum’s own decision to not inviting the head of the Spanish state to his investiture as president in October 2024, in an unprecedented event. In response, Spain decided not to send any official representative to the president’s inauguration, and opened a few difficult months in the bilateral relationship whose turbulence is now coming to an end.
