• Latin America López Obrador calls for "a pause" in relations between Mexico and Spain

  • Mexico López Obrador acknowledges that relations with Spain are not "as good as we would like"

Just one month after the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), demanded a controversial "pause" from Spain, the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has traveled to Mexico to try to "accelerate relations."

The head of Spanish diplomacy maintained an intense work schedule on Wednesday to iron out rough edges with the AMLO government and send a clear message of support to Spanish investors in the country.

Despite the fact that the Mexican president did not receive Albares, and took advantage of his visit to continue criticizing Spain, the foreign minister showed great harmony with his Mexican counterpart, and possible successor to AMLO from 2024, Marcelo Ebrard.

“Together with my friend Ebrard, we have detailed all the measures that we are going to take to continue accelerating the relationship between Mexico and Spain,” Albares assured the media after meeting with the Mexican foreign minister.

Both leaders agreed to resume "as soon as possible" the Binational Commission that has not met since 2017, just before López Obrador came to power, and signed four agreements on feminism, sustainable development, culture and cooperation programs.

Albares showed Spain's support for the modernization of the free trade agreement between Mexico and the EU, pending ratification: "Spain will continue to be the strongest defender, as it has been from the start, of an agreement that is mutually beneficial and that, if necessary, if they need our help at any time, they just have to say it ».

Among those attending the meeting was Quirino Ordaz, former governor of Sinaloa for the opposition PRI who, the day before, was ratified by the Senate as the new ambassador of Mexico in Spain.

Albares was also able to exchange views with Claudia Sheinbaum, head of government of Mexico City and another of the people who sound to take over from López Obrador at the end of the six-year term.

Contrary to AMLO's usual hostility towards Spain, Foreign Minister Ebrard stressed that “the relationship for Mexico is very important in many ways.

We have close relationships of affection towards the Spanish people, to the great contribution that the presence of Spain has meant in our country, we have a promising future, we share an agenda and values ​​(...) we are searching for a new stage and an active relationship".

Obrador did not receive the minister but claimed not to have a "phobia" of the Spanish people

President López Obrador did not meet with Minister Albares, but he did dedicate a good part of his daily press conference to the foreign minister's visit and relations with our country: "It is great that the foreign minister of Spain is here, welcome, I already I said, we are going to seek to completely restore relations, when it is understood that we live in a new stage in the public life of Mexico.

Without leaving aside his criticism of the colonial past and the supposed favored treatment received by Spanish companies, AMLO insisted that "it can no longer be the same" and that "although it takes a lot of work to accept it, to understand it, Mexico does not it is a land of conquest.”

The Mexican leader has clarified that when he called for a "pause" in relations with Spain, he was not referring to a rupture, "when I speak of a pause it is so that a reality is politically internalized, the previous relationship with Spain was characterized by abuse of Spanish companies to our country" and that "this is independent of the friendly relations, the relations that have always been had with Spain, of course interrupted during the Franco regime, but we have great appreciation for the Spanish people (... ) we do not have a phobia ».

Questioned by AMLO's words, Albares insisted that he still does not know "what a pause means" and that, in any case, "what this visit does is accelerate the relationship."

Albares cancels his trip to Chile and returns to Spain to follow the evolution of the war

Probably the most important meeting of the day in Albares took place at the headquarters of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Mexico (CAMESCOM), where he was able to send a message of calm to Spanish investors after the hostile climate that López is responsible for feeding each week Workshop.

As Antonio Basagoiti, president of CAMESCOM and former leader of the Basque Popular Party, explains to EL MUNDO, «the minister has been very clear in defending Spanish investment as honest and ethical.

His words have been comforting and with this visit we have felt more supported than ever».

Spain is the second foreign investor in Mexico behind the US, representing more than 12% of the total.

The 6,500 Spanish companies based in the country generate 300,000 direct jobs and more than one million indirect jobs.

Since 2000, these companies have invested 76,000 million dollars, especially in the energy, banking and tourism sectors.

In turn, Mexico is Spain's first trading partner in Latin America, the exchange between the two nations is equivalent to 10,000 million euros per year, with an average annual growth of 15%.

Albares will close his agenda in Mexico with a meeting with survivors of the Republican exile who migrated to the Aztec country after the Civil War.

Albares will travel back to Spain today and not to Chile, as planned, to closely follow the evolution of the war in Ukraine.

The delegation that will represent Spain at the inauguration of Gabriel Boric will be made up of Felipe VI, Irene Montero, Yolanda Díaz and the president of the Senate, Ander Gil, replacing Albares.

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