The Diplomat
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has received the new ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, whom he has urged to “work hard to strengthen investment promotion and unity between the two peoples of Mexico and Spain”.
This was announced by Ordaz through the social network Twitter. Besides, in statements to the Mexican press after the meeting (held at the National Palace on Tuesday afternoon, early Wednesday morning in Spain), the new ambassador specified that his intention is to travel to Madrid to start working “in the next few days”.
“What is the President’s instruction, to put relations in play or in pause mode, ambassador?” a journalist asked him. “A lot of work in unity, between the Spanish people and the people of Mexico,” the ambassador replied, quoted by Excelsior newspaper. His new assignment in Madrid, he continued, “is a good opportunity to strengthen, to work very hard, to promote investment, to continue strengthening the cultural relationship; it is really a very big, very broad historical link we have with Spain, more than 500 years, and I think we have to continue working hand in hand with them”.
Quirino Ordaz Coppel, former governor of Sinaloa, was ratified last March 8 by the full Senate of the Republic for the position of Mexican ambassador to Spain, thus putting an end to an appointment process that had been dragged out due to the delay in granting the certificate, a delay that had been attributed to Spain’s discomfort with the Mexican president’s criticisms of Spain’s colonial past.
The new ambassador, who lacks diplomatic experience, will arrive in Madrid in the midst of the controversies created by López Obrador, whose arrival as Mexican head of state in 2018 marked a turning point in relations with Spain. The Mexican president has been very critical of the Spanish colonial legacy and has demanded on several occasions that Spain apologize for it. In this sense, he sent King Felipe VI a letter demanding that “the Spanish State admits its historical responsibility” for the offenses committed during the conquest and “offers apologies or political reparations as appropriate”.
On February 9, the Mexican president proposed a “pause” in relations with Spain to analyze the behavior of its companies, which he accused of “plundering” and “corruption”. More than 200,000 Spaniards live in Mexico and 7,000 Spanish companies operate in the country, employing 300,000 Mexicans. López Obrador’s statements were rejected by the Spanish government, which has attributed these criticisms to “internal debates” in Mexico.
On March 9, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, traveled to Mexico, where he assured that the two countries maintain a “privileged relationship” and affirmed that he is unaware of the meaning of the “pause” in relations announced by López Obrador and that the objective of his official visit is precisely to “accelerate the relationship”. Hours before the visit, Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared in his daily press conference that José Manuel Albares was “welcome” in Mexico, but reiterated that the diplomatic “pause” he announced a month ago was still in effect. “Our foreign policy cannot forget what our history has been,” he declared, referring to the colonial past.
