Overview
- Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Oct. 31 in Madrid that there was pain and injustice toward Indigenous peoples, in remarks delivered at the opening of an exhibition on women in Mexico’s Indigenous communities.
- Spanish officials and conservative parties, including the Community of Madrid government, the PP and Vox, condemned the statement and demanded Albares’s resignation for what they called a humiliation of Spain.
- The comments were widely interpreted as a symbolic acknowledgment rather than a formal state apology or policy commitment.
- President Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed the words as progress and highlighted her push for recognition, though she noted Mexico still seeks a formal response to Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s 2019 letter requesting an apology.
- Spanish opinion coverage cast the issue as politically charged, with some columnists accusing left-wing figures of instrumentalizing history and cultural restitution debates.