Against the backdrop of the World Cup, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spanish King Felipe VI are set to ease diplomatic tensions that soured after Mexico’s demand for an apology over the colonial-era conquest.
Diplomacy between the two countries chilled in 2019 when Sheinbaum’s political mentor, then-president Andres Manuel López Obrador, wrote a letter to the Spanish crown requesting the recognition of “crimes” committed in the 16th century.
Felipe VI never responded, and the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs defended the history shared by both countries, rejecting the idea of an apology.
The move was the opening salvo to years of diplomatic tensions.
Sheinbaum did not invite the king to her inauguration in October 2024. Spain then declined to send a representative to the ceremony.
But both parties have taken positive steps over the past year to organize Felipe’s official trip and “reinforce the closeness and affinity that tie both people together,” according to the Spanish Royal House.
The planned meeting will be brief, without any accompanying press conference.
The King will visit Sheinbaum in Mexico City while en route to Guadalajara, where Spain will play against Uruguay in the group phase of the World Cup.
“A new line of communication has been opened,” Sheinbaum said on Wednesday in her daily press conference. “There will be a cordial meeting.”
The leader said she will focus on “recognizing originary people, their cultural grandeur, and what great civilizations in the past and native people today represent for Mexico.”
“This is a question of dignity,” she added.
‘Mistaken’ strategy
But behind the warming diplomatic relations lay the soft power of sports and culture.
Last March, while visiting an exhibition in Madrid about indigenous women in Mexico, the King publicly admitted that there was “a lot of abuse” during the colonial conquest.
It soon came to light that Sheinbaum had invited him to attend the World Cup that Mexico is co-hosting with the United States and Canada. He accepted, in what was the first step to “heal wounds,” the Mexican political commentator Pablo Majluf told AFP.
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The analyst criticized the “mistaken” strategy of López Obrador and the desire to show that “what they wanted was achieved, which was getting the King to recognize the posture of Mexico.”
Nonetheless, “the two countries are profoundly tied culturally, historically, and economically, meaning the closeness is positive,” he said.
In early June, dozens of Spanish and Mexican businessmen joined Spanish Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, for a meeting in Mexico City, where they sought to discuss doubling bilateral commerce by 2030.
Allies against Trump
Traveling alongside Felipe VI will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, and the Minister of Education, Milagros Tolon.
Sheinbaum’s and Felipe’s public handshake will seal the reconciliation, which started when Albares recognized at the same exhibition in Madrid the “pain and injustice” inflicted upon “the originary people” of the Americas.
Spain had previously granted numerous awards to Mexican personalities and institutions — interpreted as subtle winks towards a potential reconciliation.
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The accolades included the granting of the Cervantes Prize to the writer Gonzalo Celorio and the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord to Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology.
In April, Sheinbaum traveled to Barcelona at the invitation of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez to participate in a summit of leftist leaders to discuss the aggressive policies of US President Donald Trump.
It was her first visit to Europe as President, and “an error” in the opinion of Majluf, because it put her in the category of Trump’s enemies alongside Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
