BARCELONA, Spain – In a landmark moment for bilateral ties, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum closed a years-long diplomatic rift between Mexico and Spain rooted in the legacy of Spanish colonial rule, wrapping up the reconciliation with a handshake and conciliatory remarks during her Saturday appearance at a Barcelona pro-democracy gathering.
Addressing delegates at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy – a conference bringing together political representatives from 15 nations focused on countering the global rise of illiberal governance – Sheinbaum pushed back on narratives of ongoing tension between the two nations. “There is no diplomatic crisis, there never was one,” she stated, moments before she greeted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez with a handshake. She emphasized that the core of the discussion has always been honoring the experiences and contributions of Indigenous communities across Mexico, rather than perpetuating conflict.
The diplomatic standoff stretches back to 2019, when then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent an open letter to Spain’s King Felipe VI and Pope Francis calling for a formal, public acknowledgment of systematic abuses carried out against Indigenous populations during the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico. The Spanish government rejected the demand for an official apology at the time, a decision that gradually eroded warm relations between the two governments.
Ties reached their lowest point earlier this year, when Sheinbaum declined to extend an inauguration invitation to King Felipe VI over the continued refusal to issue the formal apology. Sánchez labeled the snub “unacceptable,” and Spain retaliated by breaking with longstanding diplomatic tradition, declining to send any official representative to the Mexican president’s inauguration ceremony.
The turning point came in March 2025, when King Felipe VI took an unprecedented step toward reconciliation by publicly acknowledging that the colonial conquest of the Americas resulted in widespread abuse and mistreatment of Indigenous native communities. The concession cleared a path for renewed diplomacy, and the Mexican government responded by inviting the Spanish monarch to attend a 2025 FIFA World Cup match hosted in Mexico this summer.
At Saturday’s summit, Sánchez did not publicly address the now-resolved dispute, instead focusing on shared collaborative goals. He thanked Sheinbaum for Mexico’s agreement to host the next iteration of the pro-democracy gathering in 2026, marking a quiet but clear return to normal diplomatic engagement between the two nations.