Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum arrived in Barcelona, Spain, on Friday, greeted enthusiastically by expatriates who played music and sought photos with her. She is attending the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit to promote world peace and meet leaders like Pedro Sánchez. The trip aims to improve diplomatic ties with Spain after years of tensions.
President Claudia Sheinbaum landed at Barcelona airport on Friday, where Mexican residents in Spain welcomed her with hugs, music, and a line for photos. “Viva la paz siempre,” Sheinbaum told media about the summit's message, also called Global Progressive Mobilisation or IV Cumbre en Defensa de la Democracia.
This trip marks the first visit by a Mexican president to Spain since 2018 with Enrique Peña Nieto. It aims to overcome the diplomatic crisis started in 2019 by Andrés Manuel López Obrador's letter requesting apologies for Conquest abuses, which received no response from Madrid. Tensions peaked in October 2024 when King Felipe VI was not invited to Sheinbaum's inauguration and Spain sent no representative.
On Saturday, Sheinbaum will hold a bilateral meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the progressive forum, also attended by Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombia's Gustavo Petro. Her agenda includes meetings with Uruguay's Yamandú Orsi, EU's Ursula von der Leyen, and Barbados' Mia Mottley, plus a Sunday visit to the National Supercomputing Center. The tour ends on April 19.
Gobernación Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez emphasized Mexico will bring a message of peace and “primero los pobres” amid geopolitical tensions in Latin America.
