The Diplomat
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has once again lashed out at Spain, just hours after five Spanish ministers took part in the 13th Spanish-Mexican Bilateral Commission in Mexico City.
López Obrador told a press conference yesterday that “the pause” in relations with Spain “continues”, because he considers that there is no “attitude of respect” on the Spanish side.
His words contrast with the tone of Thursday’s joint appearance by the Spanish and Mexican foreign ministers, José Manuel Albares and Marcelo Ebrard, in which they described the bilateral meeting as “a success”, as they were able to reach agreements on education, consular, economic, diplomatic and development cooperation matters. Albares went so far as to affirm that “it is impossible to pause relations between two brotherly countries such as Spain and Mexico”.
The Commission was also attended by the Spanish Ministers of Industry, Reyes Maroto, Education, Pilar Alegría, Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, and Universities, Joan Subirats, and their Mexican counterparts.
Far from the conciliatory and positive tone expressed at the end of the meeting between the Spanish and Mexican ministers, López Obrador insisted on his criticisms: “I sent a respectful letter to the head of state, to the King of Spain, and he didn’t even have the attention to answer me,” he lamented, referring to the letter sent in March 2019 in which he called on Spain to admit its “historical responsibility”.
In this regard, he pointed out that Pope Francis answered “all” the letters he has sent him. “And we did not necessarily coincide”, he added.
In the case of Spain, the Mexican leader believes that, in order to open “a new stage in relations”, it is “important” that there be a “gesture of humility” in which “the extermination, the repression, the murders of the native peoples” are recognised.
López Obrador criticised the fact that there are those in Spain who question this request for an apology. “They say that we have to thank them for coming to civilise us”, he said.
He also pointed out that Spanish companies act “with the same attitude of arrogance” and warned that the situation has changed in Mexico with respect to the policies of previous governments. “What we don’t want is for them to see us as a land of conquest”, he added.
López Obrador affirmed that he does not prevent “any company” from doing business in Mexico, as long as it is “legal”, and described the Spanish people as “first class”.
The Mexican president’s words, uttered only a few hours after the Binational Commission meeting, caused surprise among the Spanish government, which was forced to issue a statement last night through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which it expressed its “categorical rejection” of López Obrador’s statements about His Majesty the King, Spanish companies and political sectors in Spain.
These statements,” the statement emphasises, “are incomprehensible after a successful Binational Commission that has offered so many concrete results”.
The note concludes by assuring that “Spain will always favour the strengthening of fraternal human, cultural, economic and educational ties between our two brotherly countries”.
