Mexican presidents wants to 'pause' relations with Spain

Mexico's populist, nationalist president has engaged in periodic quarrels with Spain

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s populist, nationalist leader has engaged in periodic quarrels with Spain, but relations reached a new low Wednesday when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the two countries’ relations should be put on “pause.”

López Obrador made it sound sort of like a time-out for Spain, a country he had previously asked to apologize for the brutality of the 1521 Conquest of Mexico and centuries of colonial rule. Spain never did, and some have accused López Obrador of using the five-century-old issue to distract attention.

López Obrador didn’t explain exactly what a ‘pause’ would mean, but the proposal came at the end of a diatribe against Spanish energy companies he said had taken unfair advantage of private-sector openings in Mexico. The president claimed they engaged in “robbery" and treated Mexico like “a conquered land.”

“Right now the relationship is not good,” López Obrador said at his daily news briefing. “I would like to put it on pause, until we can normalize it, that I think would be in the best interest of Mexicans and Spaniards.”