Luis Ayllón
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, yesterday went on the attack again against Spain, proposing to put relations between the two countries “on pause” and making accusations of “plundering” by Spain.
López Obrador’s attitude has caused surprise in the Spanish government, as highlighted by the reaction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who, from Lyon (France), told journalists that there had been no action on the Spanish side that could justify a statement like the one made by the Mexican president.
The tension between Spain and Mexico seemed to have eased after the Spanish authorities granted Quirino Ordaz, the new ambassador in Madrid proposed by the Mexican president, who had been delayed somewhat over the usual response time.
The approval, which had been expected for months, was granted after a meeting in Honduras between the Mexican and Spanish foreign ministers, Marcelo Ebrard and José Manuel Albares, and after a visit to the Mexican capital by the Secretary of State for Ibero-America, Juan Fernández-Trigo.
At a time when the Spanish government had hoped for a phase of rapprochement between the two countries, López Obrador’s statements were made, which point to a personal desire on the part of the Mexican president to do nothing to improve bilateral relations. During a press conference at the National Palace, López Obrador acknowledged that relations with Spain are not good at the moment, and stated: “I would like it to take a while for relations with Spain to normalise, so that we can take a pause, which I think will be good for Mexicans and Spaniards”.
He added, “To make a pause in relations, because there was a conspiracy at the top, an economic and political promiscuity, at the top, between the governments of Mexico and Spain, but for three six-year periods in a row, and Mexico got the worst of it, they plundered us”.
In his speech, López Obrador alluded to various contracts involving Spanish companies, such as Repsol, OHL and Iberdrola, and criticised his predecessors in the Mexican presidency, saying that “they had a complex, fascinated with the Monarchy”.
For this reason, he insisted on proposing this “pause” in relations “so that we can respect each other and not be seen as a land of conquest”, he said. He added: “We want to have good relations with all the governments of the world, but we don’t want them to steal from us, just as the Spanish don’t want to be stolen from any country, and they do well, so neither do we”.
López Obrador implied that while he is at the helm of the country, it will be very difficult for relations to normalise, stating: “Maybe when the government changes, relations will be re-established, and I would hope – because I would no longer be here – that they would not be the same as before”.
Speaking to Spanish journalists, Albares, who was in Lyon, began by saying that the first thing he was going to do was to verify López Obrador’s statements and their scope, and that he understood that they had been made in an informal context in response to questions from a journalist and that they were not an official position, since nothing had been communicated to the Spanish government.
In any case, he said that López Obrador would have to be asked what he had meant, and, in any case, he expressed his “surprise”, because, he said, such words contradicted his own statements made a week ago and also those of Foreign Minister Ebrard, who publicly, after the “cordial” interview they held in Honduras, “welcomed” the relationship with Spain.
What I do want to say,” the Spanish minister stressed, “is that the relationship between Spain and Mexico is a strategic relationship that goes beyond sudden verbal declarations or occasional words”.
The Spanish government,” Albares insisted, “has not taken any action that could justify a statement of this kind”.
He went on to point out that what business relations between the two countries show is that, “for many years now, investment flows in both directions have only been increasing”. “Far from a pause, what we are talking about is an increase in our business relations that both governments must accompany,” he said.
Albares concluded by assuring that what the government will always do is “defend Spain’s interests in any circumstance and before any country”.
