Mexico's president invites King Felipe VI to World Cup

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum has invited King Felipe VI of Spain to attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Mexico, the United States and Canada from June 11 to July 19, according to Spain's Royal Household.

In her letter to the king, Sheinbaum emphasized that the sporting event "constitutes a propitious opportunity to evoke the depth and singular character of the bonds between Mexico and Spain, forged by a historical brotherhood and sustained by the shared legacy of language, culture and collective memory that is full of great displays of solidarity, empathy and a humanistic vision between our peoples," the Royal Household said.

The letter was dated February 3 and received by the Royal Household on February 24, more than two weeks before the king's public remarks on Monday regarding abuses committed during the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The Royal Household received the invitation "with pleasure" and described it as a personal invitation to Felipe VI to visit Mexico "within the framework of the fraternal relationship of friendship between the two countries."

On Monday, King Felipe VI visited an exhibition on indigenous Mexican women at the National Archaeological Museum in Spain, where he acknowledged that there was "much abuse" during the Conquest despite the Laws of the Indies adopted by the Catholic Monarchs to protect the indigenous population. The king stated that those behaviors, viewed through the lens of current values and perspectives, are not something to feel "proud" of.