Eduardo González
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has asserted that her country has not broken “any relationship” with Spain but insisted that her government is still “awaiting a response” to the letter from her predecessor, Andrés López Obrador, to King Felipe VI, urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest.
“No relationship has been broken (…). There are economic relations, political relations, tourism relations,” the president declared at a daily press conference on Monday. However, she clarified, “We never agreed with the way they responded, and furthermore, we agree with the letter that President López Obrador sent, and we are still awaiting this response,” she added.
According to Sheinbaum, it was a “very diplomatic letter requesting a form of forgiveness for past atrocities” that “was answered in an undiplomatic manner and, on the contrary, with a campaign against President López Obrador in Spain.”
Claudia Sheinbaum excluded King Felipe VI from the guest list for her inauguration (on October 1, 2024) for not responding to a letter from Andrés López Obrador urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest.
The Spanish government called this decision “unacceptable” and announced that it would not participate in the inauguration “at any level.” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the press in New York that “the Spanish government considers Mexico a sister country,” and therefore, it is “absolutely unacceptable to exclude the presence of our head of state, a head of state who, by the way, has participated in all inaugurations, both as a Prince and since becoming King.”
Amid the controversy, Claudia Sheinbaum announced in a statement that the King had been excluded from the guest list for failing to respond to a letter from Andrés López Obrador urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The president-elect clarified that Sánchez, with whom she had had a conversation “on the matter,” had been invited. During his meeting with the media in New York, the prime minister declined to comment on this detail.
The King represents Spain at the inaugurations of Ibero-American presidents, a role that Don Felipe has held since 1996, when he was Prince of Asturias. Specifically, the King attended the inauguration of Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in 2018. Finally, the investiture ceremony was attended by members of Sumar, a minority partner in the coalition government, in a personal capacity.