Mexico City – Mexico Wonders Why Its President Is Meeting With Trump

    16

    FILE - In this Friday, July 10, 2015 file photo, Alicia Lopez Fernandez paints a pinata depicting Donald Trump at her family's store "Pinatas Mena Banbolinos" in Mexico City. In a surprise move, Donald Trump will travel to Mexico on Wednesday, Aug. 31, to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, just hours before the Republican delivers a highly anticipated speech on immigration. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)Mexico City – President Enrique Pena Nieto awoke to a storm of criticism from Mexicans over his decision to meet Wednesday with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is widely reviled in Mexico for referring to its migrants as “rapists” and criminals.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    Former first lady Margarita Zavala, herself a potential presidential candidate, aimed a tweet at Trump, saying: “Even though you may have been invited, we want you to know you’re not welcome. We Mexicans have dignity, and we reject your hate speech.”

    At least two protests were already being planned for downtown Mexico City and Pena Nieto’s office would not say exactly where or when the meeting would be held, possibly in a bid to avoid protests outside the meeting site.

    Leading historian Enrique Krauze also addressed a tweet to Trump in English: “Listen … We Mexicans expect nothing less than an apology for calling us ‘criminals and rapists.'”

    He compared Pena Nieto’s meeting to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signing of a 1938 peace pact with Germany. “Tyrants are to be confronted, not pacified,” Krauze told the Televisa TV network.

    Even Pena Nieto has made such such comparisons. Asked about Trump in March, Pena Nieto complained to the Excelsior newspaper about “these strident expressions that seek to propose very simple solutions.” He said that sort of language has led to “very fateful scenes in the history of humanity.”

    “That’s the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived,” Pena Nieto said.

    Many Mexicans felt the Republican had left Pena Nieto and left him flat-footed by accepting an invitation the Mexican president had made simply for appearances’ sake.

    The newspaper El Universal wrote in an editorial that Trump “caught Mexican diplomats off guard” by accepting the invitation, and “got one step ahead of them.”

    “They wanted to invite Hillary (Clinton), but that meant inviting both of them and nobody thought Trump would accept first,” said Mexico City-based security analyst Alejandro Hope. “What’s in it for Mexico? Here there’s nothing to gain. The upside is all for Trump.”

    Historically, the golden rule of Mexico’s foreign policy has been to avoid being seen as taking sides in U.S. politics; hence the two invitations, even though Mexico favors Hillary Clinton’s position on a path to citizenship for migrants.

    Pena Nieto acknowledged he had invited both candidates, and said he did it because “I believe in dialogue to promote Mexico’s interests and above all to protect Mexicans everywhere.”

    Mexicans have already made — and beaten to pulp — pinatas of Donald Trump. They created a video game in which players can throw soccer balls, cactus leaves and tequila bottles at a cartoon image of Trump.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    16 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    shimonyehuda
    shimonyehuda
    7 years ago

    we are wondering in the USA too.

    Realist77
    Realist77
    7 years ago

    Great strategy on Trumps team. Important for him to meet with the President of Mexico to discuss his concerns about the illegals coming into the USA. It shows that Trump does not back away from those that criticize him and he is willing to listen to the other side.

    takeittothem
    takeittothem
    7 years ago

    Trump will grab the Mexican president by the arm and say ‘if you don’t pay for the wall, I will break your arm’. Now we know how Mussolini, I mean Trump, will have Mexico pay for the wall.
    Och n’ vey if he ever becomes president

    hashomer
    hashomer
    7 years ago

    Herr Trumpf is surely the ‘ugly American’, hated by our international friends and loved by our enemies like KBG Putin. Comparisons to IL Duche and Adolph abound.

    shimonyehuda
    shimonyehuda
    7 years ago

    no trump thinks that if he becomes president he will wave his magic wand and all his fantasies and lies will come true.