More than five years have passed since the former president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sent a letter to the king of Spain with the request to agree to an apology from the Spanish State for the crimes committed during La Conquista. It was March 2019, the prelude to the celebrations that the Mexican Government was preparing to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán and the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence. What seemed like an attempt at a “great reconciliation” by the former president has become one of the most tense chapters in the history of diplomatic relations between both nations. This Tuesday, when questioned once again about the controversy, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, clarified that relations with Spain are not broken, and has assured that until now, without a formal response, she still believes that a excuse: “There are responses in the media, but not a formal response of what opinion they have regarding that. The Conquest was a violent act, obviously they are not the Spaniards of today, but what allows that? Reconstruct the past from a recognition that there were things that were not right. That would strengthen the Mexico-Spain relationship,” he said.
This Tuesday, the president gave a detailed account of what happened after López Obrador sent that letter to the Spanish crown: “The president sends a letter to the king with his arguments for an apology. In the last part, if you read it, he says in a very cordial way: let’s agree to see how this can be done and even for the Mexican State to apologize for itself – as it did in the case of the Yaquis or in other cases, with the Chinese people—because of the massacres that took place in Mexico,” he begins.
Minutes before, he dedicated part of his response to insisting that the relations with Spain, the commercial ones, the tourist ones, the cultural ones, those of the investments of so many Spanish companies in Mexican territory, those that unite both peoples, are there. And he has made his position clear regarding the need for an apology. “They could not have agreed,” he continues, and again insists that there is not even an official position on the issue so far.
But the Spanish State, still in disbelief a few days after that month of March 2019, issued several statements, among them those of the then Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, when he declared that the Government of Spain, “obviously”, was not going to present those “extemporaneous apologies.” Furthermore, in response, the Government of Pedro Sánchez published a statement in which it “deeply” regretted the publication of the letter and assured that it “firmly rejected” its argument, and signed that it reiterated its willingness “to work together with the Government of Mexico and continue building the appropriate framework to intensify the relations of friendship and cooperation that exist between our two countries, which allows us to face future challenges with a shared vision.”
Sheinbaum continued: “So [el presidente] send the letter in a very cordial manner. And what could have happened as it should happen in diplomatic relations? A reply in a letter. It could have been the king or the foreign ministry in a bilateral relationship that was private, until then. So they don’t answer, but not only do they not answer, but they make public a part of the letter, they filter it and after that, a statement comes out in a media outlet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then comes an orchestrated campaign against the president of Mexico, in Spain. Well, how did they want that under that circumstance [continuáramos] as if nothing had happened? It was not only Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico, who was subjected to this contempt,” he said.
The exclusion of King Felipe VI from Sheinbaum’s inauguration on October 1 has fueled discussion on both sides of the Atlantic. The Spanish far-right Vox ignites its speeches by directly attacking President Sheinbaum and publicly mocking her position on the issue. The Spanish political class, historians and public opinion give way to discussions and analysis about whether or not an apology is necessary, as the Mexican State requested and now requests. On this side, the opposition refuses to be part of that position and has even communicated its distance from the Government’s request.
The president of Mexico has inherited this diplomatic tension from her predecessor and political mentor and has assumed it as a personal cause. Meanwhile, last September, during the UN General Assembly, Sánchez, the president of the Spanish Government, declared: “Behind all this there is enormous sadness because two brother peoples, for the political interest of one, cannot “to have the best relations between people and between two progressive governments that share values and probably policies.”