Sheinbaum confirms that he did not invite King Felipe VI to take the oath, and the Spanish government will not send any representative

(CNN Spanish) – Mexico’s President-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, confirmed in a statement posted on social media that she had sent a diplomatic note inviting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, not King Felipe VI, to attend the inauguration ceremony.

Sheinbaum noted that the reason Sanchez was invited was because he did not directly respond to a letter sent by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the King of Spain in 2019, in which he asked for a joint ceremony in which the Kingdom of Spain would participate. They would publicly express “recognition of the injustices that occurred” during the invasion.

The letter was then leaked to the media and the Spanish Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing regret for the publication of the letter but rejecting its content “firmly.”

“The arrival of the Spaniards 500 years ago in present-day Mexican territory cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations,” the statement said.

After winning the election, Sheinbaum said she had agreed to her predecessor’s request, though she favored maintaining relations with Spain. In a statement released Wednesday, Sheinbaum said that recognition of indigenous peoples during his government would be fundamental, and expressed hope that “this circumstance” would be a starting point for Mexico and Spain to find “new paths of understanding based on sovereignty and mutual respect.”

For its part, the Spanish government announced on Tuesday that it will not send any representative to attend Sheinbaum’s swearing-in ceremony due to the exclusion of King Felipe VI from the list of invited figures.

In a brief post on the Foreign Ministry’s website, authorities indicated that they would not participate “at any level” in the inauguration of Mexico’s first president.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that although Mexico is a sister country, they cannot accept the exclusion of the king.

“The head of state, the King of Spain, always goes to all the inaugurations, and therefore, we cannot accept his exclusion in this case. Therefore, if the head of state is excluded, Spain will not be represented, which we feel very sorry for because the Mexican people are a brotherly people.”

Before the incident with Spain, the presence of the presidents of Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua at the inauguration had also sparked controversy, but Sheinbaum’s team calmed the speculation by publishing a list of leaders who had confirmed their attendance, which did not include Vladimir Putin, Nicolás Maduro or Daniel Ortega.