Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is already in Spain. The president landed on Friday night at El Prat airport in Barcelona to participate in the IV summit for the defense of democracy. This is Sheinbaum’s first trip to Europe since taking office in October 2024 and the first visit by a Mexican head of state to Spanish territory in eight years, following the official tour held by Enrique Peña Nieto in 2018. The meeting scheduled for this Saturday with the Spanish Government president, Pedro Sánchez, will be the first high-level meeting between representatives of both countries since then.
“Long live peace always,” Sheinbaum said to the journalists who came to cover her arrival. The president was received by members of the Mexican community shouting “President, president!” after traveling on a commercial flight from Mexico City to Madrid, where she took another plane to reach Barcelona. The arrival in Spanish territory was a small mass gathering. The president greeted and hugged her supporters, handed out autographs, danced to traditional music, and left without giving further statements to the media. She has carefully measured the messages she has given regarding her tour in Spain, the sixth country she has visited during her term, and the information she has shared about her activities in Europe.
Sheinbaum is scheduled to participate in the official summit, convened by Sánchez and the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, around ten in the morning this Saturday (eight hours less in central Mexico). The main topics will be the defense of international institutions and multilateralism; combating disinformation and regulating social networks; and the fight against inequality and discrimination. Among the guests are also the Colombian leader, Gustavo Petro, and the Uruguayan Yamandú Orsi. The president announced this week that she plans to hold bilateral meetings with all of them.
Saturday’s summit is expected to be short, lasting approximately a couple of hours, according to information shared by the Spanish Government. Sánchez and Lula have another summit scheduled for the afternoon, the World Progressive Mobilization, a forum also held in Barcelona with a less protocolary character, involving left-wing politicians from Europe and America, but also non-governmental organizations, activists, and academics. Sheinbaum is not expected to participate in that event, according to the itinerary announced in her morning conference this week before leaving the country.
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Nevertheless, Sheinbaum’s visit has caused high political expectations on the other side of the Atlantic and represents the closest rapprochement between both countries since the diplomatic crisis following the apology request that her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sent in 2019 to the Spanish Monarchy for the abuses committed during the conquest. It is not expected that the presidents of Mexico and Spain will offer a joint press conference, according to information shared by both Governments. It is also unclear whether they will make at least part of the bilateral meeting public.
The president’s agenda also includes meetings with members of the Mexican community in Spain and a visit on Sunday to the new Mexican Supercomputing Center in Barcelona, an initiative to process large volumes of data on meteorological information, agriculture, customs, and artificial intelligence applied to public policies. Sheinbaum will depart back that same Sunday and arrive in Mexico at night. She will be in Spain for less than 48 hours, aiming to regain prominence for the Mexican Government on the international stage, seal alliances with progressive governments in the region, propose political alternatives amid Donald Trump’s attacks, and advance a slow thawing process with Spanish authorities.
