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At the ceremony of the transfer of power from the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to the new President, Dr. Claudia Sheimbaum Pardo, next Tuesday, October 1, there will be a notable absence, that of King Felipe VI de Borbón of the Kingdom of Spain.
King Felipe VI’s arrogant and colonialist behavior in not responding to Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) request to apologize to the indigenous peoples of Mexico for the atrocities committed during the colonization of this country and the rest of the continent is the reason for his absence. In response to the King’s arrogant imperialist silence, the Mexican government halted its diplomatic relations with the Spanish Kingdom in 2022.
The arrogant colonialist attitude of Felipe VI was also evident when he refused to stand up during the inauguration ceremony of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia before the transfer of the sword of the Liberator Simon Bolivar from the Palacio de Nariño to the venue of the ceremony or, also, when he displayed a cold attitude during the inauguration of President Luis Arce Catacora of Bolivia.
The snub of the new Mexican government towards King Felipe VI questions the submissive postures of the governments of the Latin American right wing, as well as the complacency of the Spanish “socialist” government towards an anachronistic and corrupt institution such as the Spanish monarchy.
Although the CADTM welcomes Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum’s position in condemning the colonial past of the Spanish monarchy and overcoming Latin American governments’ traditional submission to that institution, we are aware that we have yet to break with neocolonial institutions such as the World Bank (WB) or the International Monetary Fund (IMF), created 80 years ago after the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreements, intending to expand U.S. and “western” power in the post-war scenario.
Since then, they have persisted in serving patriarchal and racist capitalism, which is becoming increasingly concentrated, impoverishing people, and destroying nature and life through submission to foreign debt and free trade agreements that benefit transnational corporations.
Popular resistance must accompany measures such as the one we welcome today. We trust that the people of Our America (Nuestra América), with their struggles, mobilisations and organisation, will move towards their true and definitive emancipation.
