Mexico mends ties with Spain in first presidential visit in 8 years

Mexican ⁠President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez ⁠met in Barcelona on Saturday after a summit of progressive leaders, signalling a rapprochement during the first presidential visit to the Mediterranean country in eight years.

The meeting took place during Sheinbaum’s visit to Barcelona to attend the fourth “In defence of democracy” summit, a gathering ‌of global leftist leaders to mobilise advocates of these movements against the far-right.

Sheinbaum’s trip marks a softening of previously strained ties and was the first visit by a Mexican president to Spain since the ruling Morena party came to power in 2018.

Relations deteriorated under her predecessor and mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who in 2019 demanded an apology for abuses committed during Spain’s ⁠colonial rule in Mexico, a request that was not met at the time.

“There has already been a ‌rapprochement from both the Spanish president and the king himself, which we acknowledge,” Sheinbaum told reporters as she left the event, noting that she still outlined Mexico’s stance ‌on the importance of acknowledging the abuses committed during the colonisation of Latin America during her ⁠meeting with Sanchez.

She ⁠said she had invited Sanchez to attend the fifth edition of the summit, to be held in Mexico next year.