Luis Ayllón
The Spanish Government yesterday “categorically” rejected the “disqualifications” made by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in recent days against Spain and Spanish companies working in that country.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government went from expressing “surprise” at López Obrador’s words, through the head of this department, José Manuel Albares, to expressing full rejection of the Mexican president’s words, after he insisted yesterday on accusing Spanish companies of “abusing” Mexico.
At another press conference yesterday, López Obrador tried to qualify his announcement of a “pause” in relations with Spain, stating that it is not a “rupture”, but a time in which Spanish authorities and companies must “internalise” that “plundering” and “corruption” are no longer acceptable.
In any case, far from trying to calm the situation, the Mexican leader added fuel to the fire, expressly mentioning several Spanish companies, such as Iberdrola, Repsol, OHL and BBVA, which he said were “supported by political power, who abused our country, our people and saw us as a land of conquest”.
López Obrador said that Spanish companies played a key role in the corruption of the system in Mexico and that in every six-year term there was a favourite Spanish company.
For this reason, he spoke of a new stage opening up for Spanish investors in Mexico: “They should even offer apologies, they haven’t done so, it doesn’t matter, but we are going to enter a new stage slowly”, he said, while warning that companies can no longer bid for public contracts in the North American country without any formalities, with the alleged connivance of local authorities.
The Spanish government’s official reaction to López Obrador’s accusations came yesterday afternoon, after Albares had held a telephone conversation with the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, the night before, to whom he expressed the Spanish government’s displeasure at the president’s words.
The Foreign Ministry communiqué states that Spain and Mexico are “strategic partners” and are united “by deep human, cultural, historical, linguistic and economic ties”. And it recalls that “more than 175,000 Spaniards live in Mexico and nearly 30,000 Mexicans live in our country”. Moreover, Spain is the second largest investor in Mexico and has 7,000 companies in the country.
It also stresses that “Spanish investment amounts to more than 70 billion euros and Mexican investment in Spain exceeds 25 billion”.
The communiqué affirms, in any case, that “Spain will always work to maintain the best relations with Mexico and to strengthen ties with this sister nation”. And it concludes by assuring that “the government wants relations based on mutual respect, as the Spanish and Mexicans want, without this type of manifestations”.
Some Mexican media have linked the new offensive against Spain launched by López Obrador to an attempt to divert attention from the difficulties the Mexican president is having in pushing through the electricity reform. Recently, he received John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate change, who reportedly made it clear to the Mexican president that if they want to remain in the Free Trade Agreement they should renounce “dirty” energy and opt for renewables.
