Spain and Mexico are fighting again.
Spain’s representatives are skipping the inauguration of Mexico’s first woman president.
This after she refused to invite Spain’s king to the ceremony.
This has now turned into a diplomatic row.
But what happened and why?
Let’s take a closer look:
What happened?
Claudia Sheinbaum, who is set to become Mexico’s first woman president on October 1, did not invite King Felipe VI to her inauguration.
Sheinbaum invited only Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to the ceremony.
Sanchez has called Mexico’s move ‘unacceptable’ and Spain has vowed that its entire contingent would skip the swearing-in.
Over 105 nations will be sending representatives to Sheinbaum’s ceremony including the United States who will be represented by First Lady Jill Biden, as per Politico.
To understand the feud between Mexico and Spain, you have to go back centuries.
Mexico City was built over the ruins of the Aztec metropolis.
It was once the seat of Spain’s vast colonial holdings in the Americas after Spanish invaders and their native allies toppled the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521.
During the conquest, Spain and their allies committed atrocities on the natives.
Sheinbaum, in a two-page letter posted to social media on Wednesday, wrote that only Sanchez had been invited in part because King Felipe VI did not directly respond to a personal letter that the outgoing Mexican president sent the monarch in 2019.
At the time, then outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – an ally of Sheinbaum – wrote a letter to both King Felipe of Spain and Pope Francis.
Spain’s King Felipe VI. AP
“I have sent a letter to the king of Spain and another to the pope calling for a full account of the abuses and urging them to apologise to the Indigenous peoples [of Mexico] for the violations of what we now call their human rights,” López Obrador at the time said in a social media post, as per The Guardian.
Obrador in his letter asked the king to “publicly and officially” recognise the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico.
This, in order to chart a friendlier new course between the countries while also supporting one in Gaza after emergency talks among the UN Security Council.
‘Cannot be judged in light of contemporary considerations’
After Lopez Obrador reiterated his request for a formal apology shortly after his letter was made public, Spain’s foreign ministry rejected it, arguing that the conquest should not be “judged in light of contemporary considerations.”
“The arrival of the Spanish on Mexican soil 500 years ago cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations. Our closely related peoples have always known how to view our shared history without anger and from a shared perspective, as free peoples with a common heritage and an extraordinary future,” the foreign ministry said, as per The Guardian.
“Unfortunately, that letter did not prompt any direct answer,” Sheinbaum wrote in her letter.
She noted that she spoke with Sanchez a few days earlier.
“Instead, part of the letter was leaked to the media and the Spanish foreign ministry then released a press statement. The Mexican government has not received a direct clarification nor answer regarding this matter,” she said as per The Guardian.
“The recognition of indigenous peoples is fundamental to continue advancing in the transformation of our public life, because that is where the root of Mexico’s cultural greatness lies,” Sheinbaum wrote as per Bloomberg.
She also noted how Mexico welcomed those fleeing the Spanish civil war and that she hoped both countries would find“new ways of understanding based on our sovereignty and mutual respect.”
Mexico’s outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. File image/ Reuters
As per Politico, Sheinbaum added that “Mexico and Spain share a solid relationship of friendship” but that it “would benefit from a renewed perspective.”
Obrador on Wednesday signalled his support for Sheinbaum, saying, “They acted with a lot of arrogance, they never responded to a respectful and formal letter.”
Lopez Obrador was seeking to organize an event in 2021 that would mark the anniversaries of the conquest, Mexico’s 19th century independence from Spain, as well as the founding of Tenochtitlan in the 1300s.
He sought a similar apology from Pope Francis for atrocities committed against Mexico’s indigenous population as well as the repatriation of pre-Hispanic books and other artifacts held in European museums and libraries.
Francis did not respond to Lopez Obrador but has previously apologised for the “many grave sins (that) were committed against the native people of America in the name of God.”
The outgoing Mexican president has often invoked the Spanish conquest to rally nationalist sentiment, stressing that Mexico is no longer any country’s colony.
‘Unacceptable and inexplicable’
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual session in New York on Wednesday, Sanchez was asked by reporters if Spain should apologise, but he sidestepped the question.
“We can’t accept this exclusion, and that’s why we informed the Mexican government that the absence of any diplomatic representative of the Spanish government is a sign of protest,” said Sanchez.
“Not only do we consider it unacceptable, its inexplicable,” he added.
“Spain and Mexico are brother countries – and that’s why the exclusion of our head of state seems unacceptable,” Sanchez was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “Let’s not forget that this head of state has taken part in all the swearings-in – all of them – as a prince and then as a king and a head of state. That’s why we can’t accept his exclusion and that’s why we’ve told the Mexican government that there will be no Spanish diplomatic representation whatsoever.”
With inputs from agencies
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 23:32:00
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