In 2019, President López Obrador wrote to King Felipe VI of Spain to ask for an apology for the abuses of the Conquest. Spain refused. In 2024, the King was not invited to the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum.
On March 16, 2026, the King visited the exhibition “La mitad del mundo. La mujer en el México indígena” at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. Speaking of the Conquest, he said: “luego la realidad hace que no se cumpla como se pretende y hay mucho abuso” (then reality means that it is not carried out as intended, and there is much abuse).
Sheinbaum answered the next day: “Es un acercamiento del Rey que reconocemos” (It is an approach by the King that we recognize). On June 25, 2026, she received him at the National Palace.