Mexican Columnists Vent Their Anger at Trump Visit

By Jerry Kammer on September 1, 2016

If there is anyone in Mexico today who is less popular than Donald Trump, it may be the man who invited Trump to Mexico City yesterday. That is clear throughout the Mexican press, including the opinion page of today's El Universal, a Mexico City daily and the country's largest newspaper. Here are samples from four of the newspaper's columnists, who were clearly eager to vent their frustration and anger.

Carlos Loret de Mola was outraged that "the federal government placed itself at the service of a U.S. candidate who has done nothing but insult Mexicans. ... They put on a campaign event for him, organized a press conference and even let him take it over."

Hector de Mauleon expressed frustration that President Enrique Pena Nieto had not demanded an apology "for the insults thrown at Mexico and the Mexicans during the past year" by Trump. He lamented that Pena Nieto had missed an opportunity "to show valor and dignity" in response to Trump.

Ricardo Rafael presented a series of indignant questions for Pena Nieto: "Why didn't you protest against the offensive tone this man has used against us? ... Did you consider that the topic of the wall was going to come up? Why didn't you take a firm stand against this ridiculous proposal? What did you think when in your presence he said that you had not talked about who was going to pay to build the wall? What did you think about his speech later in Arizona when he said that we would pay for it 100 percent?"

Jose Cardenas, in a column headlined, "Why the devil did Trump come?" called the Republican candidate "hateful, mean, and in no way welcome". Cardenas complained that Trump had "used the visit to advance his campaign, to shove yet again into our faces that he will cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement and build a wall on the border to stop the traffic of drugs, weapons, and people. Trump spoke from here to his people over there."