President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel in a file photo.Juan Carlos Cruz / CUARTOSCURO
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has proposed this Saturday to Quirino Ordaz Coppel, governor of the State of Sinaloa, as the next ambassador to Spain. The Ministry of Foreign Relations has reported that the appointment must now go through the usual parliamentary and diplomatic channels. The veteran leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), opposed to the Government of Morena, is about to complete the term that began in 2017. This same Friday the president, during a ceremony in Culiacán, the state capital, described him as “professional ”And“ working man ”.
"The proposal", as reported by the Foreign Ministry, "will be presented to the Government of Spain to request approval in accordance with international diplomatic norms and, subsequently, will be sent to the Senate for analysis and ruling in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution." Ordaz Coppel began his career in the eighties, he had a position in the Ministry of Energy during the Government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and was deputy director of tourism promotion under the mandate of Ernesto Zedillo. Later he went on to dedicate himself to territorial politics, with a hiatus as a deputy in the coalition between the PRI and the Green Party in Congress.
This Friday López Obrador announced that the politician would go to work with his Executive.
“I want to tell Sinaloans that I am going to invite them to participate in the Government, they are going to help us, they are going to participate in the Government represented by Governor Quirino Ordaz.
I'm going to invite you to work with us.
This is because he has done a good job in Sinaloa, he is a professional, he is a working man, he has experience and he is going to join, he is going to join our team to continue transforming our country, ”he said.
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The current Mexican ambassador to Spain, María Carmen Oñate, had assumed that responsibility just over a year ago. The Ministry of Foreign Relations thanked him for "the work and performance at the head of the representation" and explained that the diplomat "had communicated for months his decision to retire, so this Foreign Ministry expresses its appreciation for his outstanding career of 42 years".
The relationship of the López Obrador government with Spain has gone through moments of tension in recent years, since in 2019, a few months after taking office, the Mexican president sent a letter to Felipe VI and Pope Francis to request forgiveness. for the excesses of the conquest. This year the tensions have been framed in the acts of celebration of the 700 years of the founding of Tenochtitlan, the five centuries of the invasion and the 200 years of the independence of Mexico, which will end at the end of September. In recent months, however, the president avoided stirring up more controversies, while Spain has chosen to remain discreet in the face of López Obrador's insinuations, always fleeing the conflict.
Last spring, the Mexican government invited the then foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, to the commemoration of independence on September 27.
His office accepted the invitation, although shortly after the Prime Minister remodeled the Cabinet and appointed a new head of diplomacy, Manuel Albares.
The two countries have ruled out for the moment holding the so-called Binational Commission, a framework for diplomatic collaboration created in 1977 that brought together several ministers from both governments.
The last one was convened under the mandate of López Obrador's predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, of the PRI.
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