Row between Spain, Mexico leads to dispute over presidential inauguration ceremony

MADRID

Hitting back at Spain’s king not being invited to the swearing-in of Mexico’s next president, Madrid said on Wednesday that it will send no one to the ceremony.

The Spanish government finds it “unacceptable” that Felipe IV was left off the invitation list to the Oct. 1 inauguration of Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo in Mexico City, the Foreign Ministry said, and thus has decided to send no one.

Felipe is known for representing the country, especially in official ceremonies held in Latin American countries.

One suspected factor in the tensions between the two countries is Pardo's statement in July that “Spain should ask for amnesty for the Spanish conquest, which left behind a lot of massacres and violence.”

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s outgoing president, has previously made the same request of Spain.

Separately, Spain's official news agency EFE, citing Foreign Ministry sources, reported that the Spanish government described the response to Mexico as “logical, clear and strong.”

Pardo on June 2 was elected Mexico's first woman president.

*Writing by Merve Berker