Sheinbaum recognizes a “rapprochement” with Spain but insists that it recognize the abuses during the conquest

However, Sheinabum acknowledged that “there has been a different approach in the last year, both from the Spanish Government and from the King of Spain himself,” although He insisted that the abuses committed during the conquest must be recognized.

The Mexican president explained that there has been a different interpretation of what the arrival of the Spanish to Mexico was, and stressed that Pedro Sánchez and Felipe VI recognized at different times that the conquest must be evaluated in a different way. “Then I said: there is a step in this direction,” he said.

Sheinbaum explained that until now, it has been said that the Spanish came to “civilize” the people in America or that it was “a meeting of two worlds,” but he highlighted that It was a “quite violent” encounter in which there were massacres of indigenous peoples and looting.

Therefore, he said that His Government will continue to insist that “the truth be known” of the conquest from the vision of the native peoples.

Sheinbaum clarified that the trip he will make to Barcelona on April 18 is not a state visit, although he acknowledged that he will meet with the Spanish president, but this will be within the framework of the meeting with leaders of progressive governments.

“There we are going to see (…) other presidents of Latin America and other representatives of other nations, this framework (is) in which we are going,” he noted in reference to the presence at the event of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro; the Brazilian, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; and the Uruguayan, Yamandú Orsi, in addition to the host, Pedro Sánchez.

This visit occurs after in recent months, Mexico y Spain have shown signs of detente in their bilateral relations.

An open controversy in 2019

The controversy over the issue of the conquest broke out in 2019, when the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded from King Felipe VI apologize for the abuse committed during the Conquest of America.

The initiative, presented as a gesture of “historical reconciliation” with the native peoples and accompanied by a similar request to Pope Francis, was flatly rejected by the Spanish governmentwho refused to assume institutional blame for events that occurred five centuries ago.

Since then, the issue reappeared periodically in López Obrador’s official speech.

The president claimed the need for recognition of historical grievances and framed his request within a broader agenda of revaluation of indigenous peoples and critical review of the colonial past.

Historiadores y analistas, tanto en México como en España, se han mostrado divididos: mientras algunos consideran la exigencia una maniobra política de corto plazo, otros la leen como parte de un debate pendiente sobre memoria, reparación simbólica y legado colonial.

La controversia escaló en 2022, cuando el presidente mexicano anunció la conveniencia de una “pausa” en las relaciones con España, acusando a grandes empresas españolas de haberse beneficiado de una “promiscuidad económico‑política” con gobiernos anteriores.

La declaración tensó aún más la relación bilateral y obligó a Madrid a reaccionar: el Ejecutivo español restó valor formal a la expresión “pausa” y subrayó que no había recibido ninguna notificación diplomática que modificara el estatus de los vínculos entre ambos países.

A strategy followed by Sheinbaum

Claudia Sheinbaum resumed the conflict opened by López Obrador with Spain regarding apologies for the Conquest.

At her inauguration, on September 30, 2024, the new president he avoided inviting Felipe VI y He alluded again to the “Spanish invasion”in line with the historical narrative promoted by its predecessor.

The exclusion of the monarch meant that he did not attend either. no high representative of the Spanish Governmentwhich showed the persistence of diplomatic tension.

From Mexico, the message was twofold: to reaffirm continuity with the agenda of the Fourth Transformation and to maintain the symbolic demand that Spain recognize the abuses committed during colonization.

Demand an apology

Already installed in office, Sheinbaum insisted that A public apology from Spain “glorifies” governments and recalled that a formal response to the 2019 letter sent by López Obrador is still pending.

Last October, the Sánchez Government has already taken a step in this direction. He Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albaresdescribed the history shared between Spain and Mexico, as one in which, “like all human history”, there are “chiaroscuros.”

“There has been pain and injustice for indigenous peoples. There was injustice and it is fair to recognize it today and regret it, because that is part of our shared history and we can neither blind it nor forget it,” said the head of Spanish diplomacy in an event held this Friday at the Cervantes Institute in which the Mexican ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, also participated.

Nails statements that were applauded by Sheinbaum as a “first step”. “It is the first time that an authority in Spain speaks of regretting the injustice of the Conquest. Forgiveness magnifies people, it is not humiliating. On the contrary. Recognizing history, recognizing grievances, asking for forgiveness or regretting and recovering it as part of history magnifies governments,” he celebrated on his social networks.

Felipe VI rectifies

After this “first step” by Albares, the king Philip VI stated in March that “there were many abuses” in the colonization of America by the Spanish conquerors.

The monarch decided to express himself this way in an informal conversation with the Mexican ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordazduring a visit to the Archaeological Museum, as seen in a video that the Royal House broadcast on its social networks.

“There have also been struggles, let’s say, moral and ethical controversies regarding how power is exercised from day one. That is, the people themselves Catholic Kings with its guidelines, the laws of the Indies, through the legislative process, … There is a desire for protection, which then reality causes it to not be fulfilled as intended and there is much, much abuse and also, as I said before, value the fact that from there, from that knowledge, we will appreciate ourselves more,” added the King.

“A gesture”

Sheinbaumin response to the King’s words and gesture of approach, declared that he saw “a gesture”, but that it is not everything that Mexico “would have wanted.”

“It is an approach from the King that we recognize,” commented the president during one of her daily press conferences that took place on March 17.

“It wasn’t everything we would have wanted, but the truth is that it is a gesture of rapprochement” in the sense of what the previous president had been demanding, Andrés Manuel López Obradorof “recognition of excesses, exterminations that occurred during the arrival of the Spanish.”