While promoting her city as “a unique platform” for Mexican trade with Spain, visiting Madrid Mayor Isabel Díaz Ayuso has waded into controversy by defending the conquistador Hernán Cortés.

Díaz Ayuso is in Mexico on a 10-day tour that has provoked protests from Indigenous groups and political figures. 

More significantly, her visit is being ignored by the Sheinbaum administration.

The ultra-conservative Díaz Ayuso and President Claudia Sheinbaum are fiercely at odds. Díaz Ayuso has referred to Sheinbaum as “a far-left dictator,” while the Mexican president said the leader of the Spanish capital is “clinging to visions of empire.”

According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Díaz Ayuso’s visit aims “to boost the conservative opposition in Mexico … [while also] consolidating the political forces that gravitate around U.S. President Donald Trump.”

The Madrid mayor’s visit occurs at a sensitive time for Sheinbaum, who is dealing with recent U.S. accusations of drug trafficking against 10 members of Sheinbaum’s party, reinforcing Díaz Ayuso’s assertions that Mexico is “a narco-state.”

Even before arriving, Díaz Ayuso had irritated many Mexicans by defending the Conquest as a civilizing process. As a result, Monday’s tribute to Cortés was forced to change venues when the Mexico City Archdiocese said it would not allow the event to take place at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The reason given was that permits were not in order, but the Archdiocese also went to great lengths to distance itself from the tribute to Cortés.

Instead, Díaz Ayuso spoke at the Frontón México (a jai-alai venue and the site where Mexico’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) was founded in 1939), praising the mestizaje that resulted after the Conquest. 

“Mestizaje is a message of hope and joy,” she said. “Faced with hate speech that divides us, those of us who see life through these alliances must find ways to speak freely.”

In expressing support for the Conquest, Díaz Ayuso is reopening old wounds by highlighting the issue that caused the diplomatic rift, Spain’s refusal to apologize for the Conquest more than five centuries ago. That rift had recently thawed as the Spanish monarchy and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had recently made concessions in an effort to bolster bilateral relations.

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, was in Mexico at the end of April, while Sheinbaum traveled to Spain earlier in the month in a sign that the relationship was on the mend.

Díaz Ayuso’s agenda includes meetings with executives from international companies such as Cemex and Alsea, and reunions with all four PAN governors. 

She will also attend the 2026 Platino Awards gala, which honors Ibero-American cinema, at Xcaret Park in Quintana Roo on May 9.

With reports from Noticias Imer, Expansión, El País and 20 minutos