Luis Ayllón
Xóchitl Gálvez, the opposition candidate for the Mexican Presidency, who has visited Spain, assured yesterday that she has no intention of demanding an apology from Spain, as the current Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has done on several occasions.
Gálvez made this statement during a lunch organised by the Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America (CEAPI), whose president, Núria Vilanova, indicated that it was the first of a series of events with representatives of the candidates for the Mexican presidential elections, announcing that the next will be with Altagracia Gómez, a member of the team of candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, of President López Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party.
The candidate of the Fuerza y Corazón por México coalition, which includes the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), among others, was very critical of López Obrador and his position on relations with Spain, which have deteriorated politically due to the attitude of the current president, who went so far as to demand an apology from the King for the actions of the Spaniards in the conquest of Mexico.
Gálvez stated that she travelled to our country to “propose” and defend a “vision of the present”, and has no intention of “demanding apologies” for “a distant past that cannot be changed”. Nor does she intend to establish a “pause” in bilateral relations, as López Obrador did a few years ago, when he claimed that Spanish companies had abused the Mexican people.
On the contrary, the opposition candidate, who is trailing in the polls behind the ruling party’s Claudia Sheinbaum, insisted that Spain and Mexico are two sister nations and that they should undoubtedly build together again.
For this reason, she stressed that one of the priorities on the international agenda will be to “rebuild friendship and trust with the people and government of Spain”. And she said: “Spain, as the main trading partner in Europe, is an important source of investment, opportunities and jobs. With me there will be neither pauses nor grievances”.
According to Xóchitl, López Obrador wants to “preserve his power and influence beyond the terms established by the Constitution” and for that reason, the institutions are an “uncomfortable obstacle” “The Constitution is precisely another obstacle for those who seek to re-found the nation of one man. That is why last week López Obrador presented a series of constitutional reforms that, among other things, seek to remove all current members of the Supreme Court and elect new members by popular vote,” she said.
The candidate denounced the situation of insecurity in Mexico, giving the figure that some 175,000 people have been murdered in the country during the first five years of López Obrador’s government, whom she accused of allowing impunity for murderers.
Gálvez did promise legal security for investors if he governs the country, and insisted on the importance of maintaining close relations with Spain and continuing to strengthen economic ties between the two nations.
For her part, Núria Vilanova stressed that Spain is the second country, after the USA, in direct investment in Mexico, which in the first half of 2023 increased by 48% “which proves – she said – the extraordinary relationship and the interest of both countries in continuing projects and growth, so I am sure that this year is crucial to achieve an increase in investment in two ways, in Ibero-America and from Ibero-America”.
The President of CEAPI emphasised that “investment by Mexican companies in Spain has also continued to grow; there are more than 500 companies founded by Mexican entrepreneurs here, representing more than 30,000 million euros”. She added that due to the “contagion” effect, each investment generates new investments” and cited as an example that “investors who started out in real estate are now looking for investments in industry and services”.
