President Sheinbaum returns strengthened from her trip to Spain

The Mexican president’s weekend in Barcelona has met its objectives. This lightning trip has confirmed the thawing of diplomatic relations with Spain, after a closed-door meeting with Pedro Sánchez, president of the host country of the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy. A summit in which the Latin American country has claimed its place in the international spotlight alongside the other leaders of the progressive bloc. It has also found support in Brazil and Spain to demand that the United States stop suffocating Cuba, and it has been announced that, for its 2027 edition, this meeting will be held in Mexican territory. Two signs of firmness towards US President Donald Trump, who is going through a delicate moment. Finally, she met the Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat.

Read more Cartagena, a devalued Prince’s Gate

This Sunday, after concluding her participation in the summit of progressive leaders, the Mexican president visited the National Supercomputing Center, also in Barcelona. This institution collaborates with her Government in the development of a supercomputer named Coatlicue. This project is part of Plan Mexico, her six-year strategy to attract millions of dollars in investments and increase national production. The construction of the system began at the end of 2025 and was announced to take around 24 months to be ready, with an investment of 6 billion pesos (346.7 million dollars). The idea is that it will serve to solve public problems that require great data analysis capacity in environmental, energy, health, and other public sector needs.

In addition to political figures such as the Spanish Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain, Diana Morant Ripoll; the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, or the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Colbini, the Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat accompanied the Mexican president. The president has published on her social networks that this last meeting “gave her much joy and emotion” and described the artist as “a symbol of music and resistance.” She then went to El Prat airport to take a commercial flight back to Mexico City.

These have been the final moments of a visit that, while not a state visit, has held enormous importance by breaking eight years of distance with Spain and strengthening Sheinbaum’s international role. This is one more of the differences she has marked in recent months with her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who during his six-year term hardly cultivated his international profile and was the one who, in March 2019, sent the letter of discord that cooled diplomatic relations between Mexico and Spain. In this private communication to King Felipe VI, López Obrador demanded a gesture of reparation from the Spanish Crown towards the indigenous peoples of Mexico for the events that occurred during the Conquest and the viceregal era. The rejection by Pedro Sánchez’s Government was public and “with full firmness.”

Read more Chess analysis | Antón falls from the European podium when aspiring for gold

Upon arriving in Barcelona, Sheinbaum stated that “there is no diplomatic crisis. There never has been,” although it was the first high-level meeting between presidents of both countries since Pedro Sánchez met with López Obrador in Mexico City in January 2019. The thaw was confirmed at the summit reception. Sheinbaum and Sánchez saw each other, approached, and exchanged a smiling handshake before the cameras. They then held a private bilateral meeting with Sánchez, which, although there was no joint statement, did have subsequent declarations.

“We talked about how important the recognition of the Conquest is for Mexico,” explained Sheinbaum, who said that the two countries will continue working on the recognition of indigenous peoples, but gave credit to efforts from the other side of the Atlantic to reach a compromise. “The important thing is to keep dialoguing,” she added in response to journalists’ questions. During the meeting, Sheinbaum proposed that Mexico host the next progressive summit, scheduled for 2027.

Also, together with Brazil, Spain, and Mexico, they have committed to joining forces to denounce US pressures on Cuba. The Caribbean country is already facing three months of energy suffocation imposed by the Donald Trump Administration. “We express our enormous concern about the serious humanitarian crisis that the people of Cuba are going through and call for the necessary measures to be adopted to alleviate this situation and to avoid actions that worsen the living conditions of the population or are contrary to international law,” the three countries stated in a communiqué released on Saturday.

Read more A man kills eight children in a shooting in Louisiana