Mexico’s next president Claudia Sheinbaum (L) in Mexico City, Mexico, June 11, 2024, and Spain’s King Felipe VI (R) in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 31, 2024.
AFP
The ancient, dense and deep relationship between Spain and Mexico is going through a crisis six days before the inauguration of the next Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to which the King of Spain Felipe VI was not invited.
“As a sign of protest” against this “inexplicable” and “unacceptable” “exclusion”, Spain boycotted the October 1 ceremony marking the arrival to power of the first female president in the history of Mexico.
“Spain and Mexico are brother peoples. And therefore it seems absolutely unacceptable to us that the presence of our head of state is excluded,” declared the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, on Wednesday in New York, from the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
Refusal to acknowledge the “damage” caused by the conquest
Felipe VI has participated “in all the investitures” in Latin America “as prince and also since he became king and head of state” in 2014, added Pedro Sanchez.
The head of the social-democratic government was himself invited to the inauguration ceremony in July, Mexico’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum explained on Wednesday. But not the King of Spain, because he refuses to acknowledge the “damage” caused by the conquest five centuries ago, she continued in a statement.
The King of Spain never responded to a letter from the outgoing president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, sent in 2019, she recalled. The left-wing nationalist president proposed to recognize “publicly and officially” these “damages” caused by the conquest (1521-1821).
“Huge frustration”
“Unfortunately, this letter was never answered directly, as should have been the best practice in bilateral relations,” added Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling left-wing party Morena like the outgoing president.
A week ago, Mexico published the list of guests for the inauguration ceremony on October 1 in Mexico City. The King of Spain Felipe VI was not on this list, which also includes the main leaders of the Latin American left, starting with the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden.
Pedro Sanchez expressed his “enormous frustration” especially since Mexico is led by “progressive governments.” “We too are a progressive government and it seems that we cannot normalize our political relations,” he lamented. In her statement, Claudia Sheinbaum indicated that she had spoken with Pedro Sanchez two days ago.
“Let the two countries agree and write a shared narrative”
Spain and Mexico are united by deep historical, human, economic and cultural ties. Thousands of Spanish companies operate in Mexico, starting with the banks BBVA and Santander, two of the leaders in the local market.
Earlier this year, Mexico bought 13 power plants from Spanish energy giant Iberdrola for $6.2 billion (about 5.2 billion Swiss francs). During his term, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador twice declared a “pause” in relations with Spain.
In his 2019 letter, he proposed “that the two countries agree and write a shared, public narrative of their common history,” Sheinbaum recalled in her statement. King Felipe VI has participated in some 80 inauguration ceremonies in Latin America, according to the news site El País.
In 2022 in Colombia, at the inauguration of leftist President Gustavo Petro, observers criticized the Spanish monarch for remaining seated during the passing of the sword of Simon Bolivar, one of the heroes of the independence of the Spanish colonies in Latin America in the early 19th century. The other guests had stood up.
(AFP)
