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(Bloomberg) — Relations between Mexico\u2019s president-elect and Spain are off to a bad start over grievances about abuses against Indigenous peoples committed by Spanish conquistadors centuries ago.<\/p>\n
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The diplomatic row deepened this week when Madrid said it wouldn\u2019t send a representative to Claudia Sheinbaum\u2019s Oct. 1 inauguration because Mexico had only invited Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and not King Felipe VI to the ceremony.<\/p>\n
In an open letter published Wednesday, Sheinbaum said the king didn\u2019t get an invitation because he failed to respond to a 2019 call made by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for Spain to publicly recognize the atrocities that culminated in the fall of the Aztec civilization and the beginning of the Spanish domination of Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recognition of indigenous peoples is fundamental to continue advancing in the transformation of our public life, because that is where the root of Mexico\u2019s cultural greatness lies,\u201d Sheinbaum wrote in the letter, in which she mentioned Mexico\u2019s \u201cgenerous\u201d welcome to Spaniards fleeing the country\u2019s civil war in the 1930s. \u201cPrecisely for that, our relationship would benefit from a new historic perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mexico is just the latest diplomatic problem faced by Sanchez in Latin America, a region traditionally seen as part of Spain\u2019s main sphere of influence. Earlier this year, the Spanish prime minister summoned for consultations his ambassador to Buenos Aires after clashing with Argentina\u2019s Javier Milei. More recently, he was accused of enabling Nicolas Maduro\u2019s continued grip on power in Venezuela after giving asylum to the opposition leader who challenged him in a disputed July election.<\/p>\n
In Mexico, Sheinbaum said she hopes both nations will find \u201cnew ways of understanding based on our sovereignty and mutual respect.\u201d She received the support of Lopez Obrador, who in a news conference Wednesday again read the letter he had sent to the Spanish king five years ago.<\/p>\n
Sanchez dismissed Mexico\u2019s complaints, in line with a view accepted by many in the country that Spain has no need to apologize for its colonial past.<\/p>\n
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