Claudia Sheinbaum will travel to Spain on April 18 to participate in the progressive summit of Sánchez and Lula

Eduardo González The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, will travel to Spain on April 18 to participate in the fourth meeting of the initiative “In Defense of Democracy: Fighting Against Extremism,” a summit of progressive Latin American leaders to be held in Barcelona and co-organized by Spain and Brazil. Sheinbaum confirmed her visit to Spain during her morning press conference. “Actually, we’re going one day and coming back the next so we can be in Barcelona on the 18th,” the president explained. The meeting will bring together four progressive leaders: the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, as host; the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; and the President of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi. This is his first visit to our country since the diplomatic crisis that occurred in October 2024 when the Mexican president excluded King Felipe VI from the guest list for her inauguration because he had not responded to a letter from his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The Spanish government called the decision “unacceptable” and announced it would not participate in the inauguration “at any level.” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters in New York that “the Spanish government considers Mexico a brother country,” and therefore, it is “absolutely unacceptable to exclude the presence of our head of state, a head of state who, incidentally, has participated in every inauguration, both as Prince and since becoming King.” Amid the controversy, Claudia Sheinbaum stated in a press release that the King had been excluded from the guest list because he had not responded to a letter from Andrés Manuel López Obrador urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The president-elect clarified that Sánchez, with whom she had spoken “about the matter,” had been invited. In his meeting with the media in New York, the Prime Minister declined to comment on this detail. In mid-March, Claudia Sheinbaum praised King Felipe VI's gesture, who the day before had acknowledged that there had been "much abuse" by the Spanish during the colonial period. For his part, Pedro Sánchez fully endorsed the monarch's words, and the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, expressed his pride in the Spanish legacy in the Americas and pointed out that the King's remarks were made "in a conversation, not in an official address." That same week, Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the King of Spain had been invited to visit Mexico in June to attend the opening of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but clarified that the invitation had been extended "to all countries with which Mexico has relations."

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