The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has denied that there has been a diplomatic crisis with Spain over Spain’s recognition of the suffering caused by the conquest of America. “There is no diplomatic crisis, there never has been. What is important is that the strength of the indigenous peoples for our homeland is recognized,” she explained upon her arrival at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy taking place in Barcelona this Saturday.
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In a brief address to the media prior to the meeting, Sheinbaum expressed her “happiness” to be at this event, “always defending democracy with a principle,” after which she paraphrased Abraham Lincoln: “As Abraham Lincoln said, democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
After the meeting, the Mexican president and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, addressed the controversy between both countries over what happened during the conquest, and regarding which the Mexican head of state noted a rapprochement from both her interlocutor and the King. Sánchez and Sheinbaum held a bilateral meeting in which a great rapport between the two was evident.
The central government has also denied that there was a diplomatic crisis with Mexico, despite the claims made in recent years by both Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. On the contrary, they assure that there is a “fantastic rapport between the president and the president of Mexico,” who “have discussed the global situation, how to continue strengthening EU-Mexico relations, and ways to strengthen cultural, economic, and social ties between both countries.”
Sheinbaum and Sánchez also discussed how to continue strengthening cultural, economic, and social ties between Spain and Mexico, although no details were provided.
The Mexican president’s presence at this meeting has special symbolism, as it is her first visit to Europe since assuming the presidency in October 2024, and her presence in Barcelona responds to the appeasement of diplomatic tensions with Spain after the rapprochement shown by the Spanish Government and King Felipe VI with their pronouncements on the arrival of the Spanish in America.
The IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy began this Saturday in Barcelona with the presence of about twenty progressive world leaders whose objective is to coordinate basic strategic principles to combat the far-right wave that questions multilateralism and democracy.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, also stopped at the entrance of this high-level meeting to applaud the initiative, designed to offer “an alternative in the world,” he said. Asked if this event could be understood as a summit against US President Donald Trump, Petro denied it: “It is not against anyone,” but rather “a beacon, an idea that sets a course, that of life, not that of death,” he pointed out.
Petro also referred to the international war context, marked by the war in Iran. For the Colombian president, “both the aggression against Iran and the extension of the war are among the worst steps taken by any government, along with the genocide in Gaza,” but he went further by warning that “a serious peace process puts on the table the conflict in Palestine, the solution of two sovereign states, and the need to move away from oil.”
At this point, Petro has positioned the decarbonization of the economy as a necessary reflection for all humanity. Even if there is a peace process in the Middle East that allows an “instant drop in oil prices,” humanity “must reflect” to “stop the advance of hunger in the world” as a consequence of oil scarcity, which, in his opinion, requires advancing in the abandonment of oil and decarbonization.
For her part, the President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, stressed that she cannot “accept the normalization of war” and its “horrible consequences,” which is why “we must work for peace” in forums like the one being held in the Spanish city. Connolly called for reflection on “how we have reached the point of having to hold a conference in defense of democracy.”
The Vice-Chancellor of Austria and president of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), Andreas Babler, has stated that the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy will be “the beginning of a new era.”
