Mexico’s President-elect, Claudia Sheinbaumexplained this Wednesday that did not invite the King of Spain, Felipe VIat his inauguration ceremony on October 1, because the monarch did not respond to the letter that the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sent him in 2019 asking him to apologize for the conquest.
“Unfortunately, This letter did not deserve a reply. some directly, as would have been in line with best diplomatic practice in bilateral relations. However, part of the letter was leaked to the media,” Sheinbaum said in a statement.
The future president, who says she received a call “a few days ago” The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, thus reacted to the decision of the Executive not to send any representative to his inauguration for having excluded Felipe VI from the invitation to this event.
What does López Obrador’s letter say?
The letter Sheinbaum refers to was sent by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to Philip VI in March 2019In it, he asked the King of Spain and Pope Francis for a historical assessment of the conquest of Mexico, considering as “inevitable” a “reflection on the events that marked history in a decisive way.”
The letter was published by the media outlet “Reforma”, where López Obrador referred to the incursion led by Cortés as a “founding event”, while describing it as “extremely violent, painful and transgressive“. “The Conquest was achieved through countless crimes and abuses” he denounced in his letter.
He therefore asked the Kingdom of Spain to express “in publicly and officially acknowledge the grievances caused“, as well as an agreement between Mexico and Spain to achieve a “shared, public and socialized” story of their common history.
The Spanish government criticized and rejected the said letter “firmly”“The arrival of the Spanish on present-day Mexican lands 500 years ago cannot be judged in light of contemporary considerations,” they said in a statement.
