Felipe VI brings positions closer with Mexico: visit marked by the World Cup and the meeting with Sheinbaum after tensions with Ayuso

King Felipe VI begins this Thursday an official trip to Mexico in which he will combine an institutional and sporting agenda, with his presence at a Spanish national team match in the World Cup  and a meeting with the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in what represents a new step in the normalization of bilateral relations between both countries.

The visit has a marked symbolic character, as it is the first official meeting between the monarch and Sheinbaum, in a context of progressive rapprochement after years of diplomatic disagreements. The agenda includes his attendance at the Spain match in the tournament.

Seven years have passed since the King's last stay in Mexico, when in December 2018 he attended the inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City. That period marked the beginning of a stage of tensions after the letter sent by the then Mexican president in 2019, in which he requested the Spanish Crown to apologize for the abuses of the conquest.

The frictions prolonged over time and reached their most delicate point when the Mexican Government did not invite Felipe VI to the inauguration of Sheinbaum in 2024. However, in recent months both parties have promoted gestures of détente that have allowed the relationship to be channeled.

The Royal Household received "with pleasure" the personal invitation from the Mexican president to the monarch, framing the trip within a "fraternal" relationship between both countries. In March, Felipe VI himself publicly alluded to the fact that there was "much abuse" during the conquest of America, in a gesture interpreted as part of that institutional rapprochement.

Ayuso rekindles clash with Mexico after criticizing Sheinbaum and comparing the country to Venezuela

A month ago, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, traveled to Mexico and after her controversial statements, a confrontation with the Mexican president began.

During that stay, Ayuso denounced having suffered an alleged "boycott" institutional and subsequently hardened her discourse against Sheinbaum, assuring in a television interview that Mexico is "two steps away from reaching the path of Venezuela" due, she affirmed, to "the control of institutions, insecurity and drug trafficking."

The Madrid leader also questioned the treatment received during her trip, noting that she did not understand certain reactions to her presence in the country. "She's been having a terrible time for a few days, and I don't know, when she comes to Spain, it doesn't occur to anyone to give her such a reception," she stated.

Ayuso's words generated a direct response from the Mexican president, who had already criticized her visit and her meetings with conservative sectors. Sheinbaum reproached certain leaders for seeking political legitimacy in her figure and questioned her historical references to the conquest.

"How do you think a person who adores Hernán Cortés in Mexico is going to give them legitimacy?" declared the president, referring to the Spanish leader's speeches.