Ayuso returns from Mexico early and attributes it to the "boycott" by the Sheinbaum government

Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso, cornered by criticism, has decided to return earlier than planned from her official trip to Mexico. In a statement, the Madrid government attributes the decision to cancel the last leg – there were still four days left on the route – to the "boycott" by the government of the progressive Claudia Sheinbaum, whom the Madrid president has confronted during her stay. "The president of Mexico has expelled Isabel Díaz Ayuso by threatening the organizers of an international film event. An unprecedented gesture against a representative of the Spanish state, culture, and freedom of enterprise and expression," assures the Community of Madrid.

According to the PP executive, Sheinbaum has "threatened to close the hotel where" the Platino awards gala is being held "if President Díaz Ayuso attends." The ceremony is this Saturday in the Riviera Maya. The group that owns the theme park in the Riviera Maya, however, has "categorically" denied receiving any threat or instruction from the Mexican government, thus contradicting Ayuso. In fact, they have pointed out that they were the ones who asked the organizers of the Platino awards to withdraw Ayuso's invitation "due to the unfortunate statements made in recent months." "We have requested that her invitation be withdrawn to prevent the event from being used as a political platform instead of a celebration that seeks to honor the film industry of Ibero-America.

Before the Madrid president launched this accusation against Sheinbaum and announced that she was canceling the rest of the trip, the Madrid opposition had denounced that Ayuso would spend two days without an agenda in this tourist area of the Caribbean. The public denunciation by Más Madrid that she was on "vacation paid for with public money" has generated an avalanche of negative comments on social networks.

Previously, the claims made by Ayuso about Spanish colonialism in the first days of the trip had also generated criticism both in her actions, with some protests and boos, and in the digital sphere among Mexican citizens. According to an analysis done by the company Dinamic and disseminated by Efe, the first part of Ayuso's visit has caused more than 21 million impressions on social networks and around 60% were rejection due to considering it a "foreign interference".

Her praises for the conqueror Hernán Cortés also inflamed institutional relations with Mexico, which the Spanish government and monarchy have striven to redirect after years of clashes over Spain's refusal to apologize for the Conquest. The PP's state leadership tried to downplay it this Friday morning before the trip blew up, assuring that Ayuso's objective was to "defend the interests" of Madrid and, therefore, "good relations" with Mexico.

"International ridicule"

"After making an international fool of herself and being exposed for taking a taxpayer-funded vacation in the Riviera Maya, Ayuso is once again playing the victim, as always," reacted the opposition leader, spokesperson for Més Madrid in the regional Assembly, Manuela Bergerot. Both this party and the PSOE criticized her this Thursday during the plenary session, which the Madrid president did not attend, for a trip with a "sectarian and fanatical" agenda that was of no use. The PP of Madrid, on the other hand, argued that its objective was to attract foreign investment.

"It is false, as the Spanish left claims, that the president's agenda was empty," replied the Madrid government, which with this turn of events consolidates itself as the antithesis of Pedro Sánchez's allies from the global left and opens a new front with Sheinbaum, whom it holds responsible for having created a "climate of boycott" that prevented her from making a final stop in Monterrey. The Mexican president, for her part, could not help but ironically comment this Thursday on the benefit that this trip will have brought to the country's right-wing parties: "Imagine the ignorance of coming to pay homage to Hernán Cortés".