25.6.2019

Mexico City (Mexico)

The arrival of the ship "Sinaia" in Veracruz, the first ship with Spanish exiles to receive Mexico eighty years ago, inspires the acts of recognition and tribute to the protagonists of the exile and their host country.

The president of Mexico, López Obrador, praised the contribution to the development of the nation of the more than 25,000 Spanish republican exiles who arrived fleeing the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. It was Lázaro Cárdenas who, with enormous generosity, orchestrated a welcome and social insertion that had a positive impact on the country through fruitful contributions to social, cultural and educational life. Regarding the president who offered asylum to all Spanish refugees, the Mexican president affirmed "We are proud of this gesture, this way of acting of General Cárdenas. From exile came many people who joined Mexico, to be part of this homeland. That dual nationality that we all have, because we are from one country, but also citizens of the world." The Secretary of State of Global Spain, Irene Lozano, praised this example of solidarity "offered a new homeland to those who thought they had lost everything". The event paid tribute to Fernando Rodríguez, dean of the survivors of the exile, who was 102 years old. The Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Cristina Latorre, the President of the Spanish Athenaeum, Ernesto Casanovas, and the Spanish Ambassador to Mexico, Juan López-Dóriga, participated in the event. "The right of asylum is something that has already been sown in Mexico's foreign policy, something that we have to guarantee."