Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

Spain’s complicated relationship with Latin America

Spain’s complicated relationship with Latin America

The former colonial power wants to play a useful role, but undermines its own influence
THEY HAVE gained few headlines and have barely been noticed even in Spain. But over recent weeks the Spanish government has organised six virtual ministerial meetings with its counterparts in Latin America to share experiences of dealing with the pandemic that has hit their countries so hard. These gatherings culminated in a video get-together on June 24th in which Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, was joined by nine presidents. They agreed to work together to try to ensure that international financial institutions have more money to lend to Latin America as it struggles to support its economies.

This is a new and useful chapter in a relationship that has often promised more than it has delivered. In many ways, Spain and Latin America are close. They share ties of language, culture and history (though this does not apply to the same extent to Portuguese-speaking Brazil). But the political dialogue between them has had ups and downs over the past 40 years. Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s influenced Latin America as it, too, shook off dictatorship. Felipe González, Spain’s Socialist prime minister from 1982 to 1996, forged close ties with the region’s leaders. Together with Mexico, in 1991 Spain launched the first of what would become regular “Iberoamerican” summits, which include Portugal, too. Spanish companies piled into Latin America, often by buying privatised firms. In 2005 Spain set up an Iberoamerican secretariat (known as SEGIB) to implement initiatives agreed upon at the summits.

It is a low-key outfit that does useful things, like arranging the portability of professional titles and social security, and acts as a vehicle for small-scale aid projects worth some €23m ($26m) a year, to which countries contribute as they wish. In a modest way, it works.

For Latin America, where the United States and China loom large, ties with Spain are a way of diversifying friendships. The heart of Spain’s political offer to Latin America is to portray itself as the region’s advocate in Brussels, which increases its own weight there. In fact, big countries like Brazil and Argentina often have no need of an intermediary. But Spain was important in easing visa requirements for the Schengen area for Latin Americans and in clinching a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, the bloc based on Brazil and Argentina. In May Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, organised with Josep Borrell, her predecessor who is now the EU’s foreign-policy chief, a successful conference of donors to support the needs of Venezuelan migrants.

But the past casts a shadow. When last year Mexico’s populist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, demanded that Spain apologise for its invasion of 1519, Spaniards were angered while many Latin Americans privately cheered. Latin American diplomats say that Spain tends to take the region for granted. SEGIB has sometimes seemed a vehicle through which to outsource policy towards the region, or not to have one. Once a big donor to Latin America, Spain slashed development aid after its economic slump of 2009-12. Some of its companies are now retreating from Latin America.

Spain’s biggest diplomatic failure has been over Venezuela’s slide into dictatorship under Nicolás Maduro. It was left to Norway to try to broker an agreement last year between the government and the opposition. Spain is hobbled by the antics of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a Socialist former prime minister, who claims to be a mediator in Venezuela. The country’s opposition considers him a stooge for Mr Maduro. Because of Mr Zapatero, Spain “has lost a lot of prestige”, says a Latin American former foreign minister. Podemos, the far-left member of Mr Sánchez’s coalition, is also friendly towards Mr Maduro’s regime. So domestic politics undermines Spanish diplomacy on one of the most important issues in a region it claims is a priority.

Rebeca Grynspan, SEGIB’s boss, points out that the Iberoamerican summits are the only place where all the governments of Latin America sit down together. That reflects a region that is more divided than for decades, in which the presidents of Argentina and Brazil do not speak to each other and about which Mr López Obrador doesn’t care. It is a dereliction of duty that Latin America’s leaders have failed to come up with a joint position on many of the region’s pressing issues, starting with how to get international support to rebuild their economies. To Spain’s credit, on that at least, it has stepped into the breach.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
×