{"id":6948,"date":"2026-04-18T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/6948\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:32:12","slug":"with-a-handshake-spain-and-mexico-put-diplomatic-tussle-over-their-colonial-past-behind-them-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/6948\/","title":{"rendered":"With a handshake, Spain and Mexico put diplomatic tussle over their colonial past behind them"},"content":{"rendered":"

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 With a few choice words and a handshake, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a> laid to rest a diplomatic spat between her government and Spain over the Spanish colonial past during her visit to Barcelona on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no diplomatic crisis, there never was one,\u201d she said upon arrival at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy<\/a>, a gathering of representatives of 15 countries concerned with the rise of illiberalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing is to recognize the efforts of the indigenous people of our land,\u201d she said, moments before shaking hands with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum\u2019s participation came after Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI ironed out a longstanding diplomatic dispute<\/a> when in March he publicly acknowledged the conquest of the Americas had led to the \u201cabuse\u201d of native peoples.<\/p>\n

The international tussle started in 2019, when Sheinbaum\u2019s predecessor, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/a>, demanded that Spain \u201cpublicly and officially\u201d recognize the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico in a letter sent to the Spanish king and Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

Spain refused to do so, which soured relations<\/a> between the two governments.<\/p>\n

Relations hit their low point in 2024 when Sheinbaum did not invite Felipe to her inauguration over the palace\u2019s refusal to issue a formal apology, a move that S\u00e1nchez called \u201cunacceptable.\u201d Spain subsequently refused to send a representative to Sheinbaum\u2019s inauguration in a breach of tradition.<\/p>\n

The unprecedented step toward reconciliation by Felipe was followed by the Mexican government inviting the Spanish monarch to attend a World Cup match this summer.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, S\u00e1nchez did not mention the now-resolved diplomatic issue, while thanking Sheinbaum for offering to host the next edition of the pro-democracy summit next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 With a few choice words and a handshake, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum laid to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92,1970,4553,4555,4554,205,17],"class_list":["post-6948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-barcelona","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-diplomatic-crisis","tag-diplomatic-spat","tag-mexican-government","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}