PULSE NEWS MEXICO

Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who served as the country’s head of state from 1988 to 1994, was granted Spanish nationality in May of this year, after proving Sephardic Jewish ancestry, the Spanish daily newspaper El País reported on Sunday, Oct. 30.

In what some see as a hedge against possible political persecution and extradition for alleged criminal imprisonment by current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) — a long-time critic of Salinas de Gortari — the former president began the legal process to gain Spanish citizenship in 2019, the el País report said.

Salinas de Gortari currently lives in the United Kingdom and frequently visits Spain.

El País asked Salinas de Gortari about his decision to apply for a second nationality, and he replied that he did so for “personal reasons,” among which were his genealogy and “pride in his roots.”

Since 2015, more than 42,000 people have obtained Spanish nationality through proof that their ancestors were among the thousands of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the 15th century.