Latin America Sees Pena Nieto Meeting with Trump as 'Humiliation' for All Latin Countries Rafael Croda - Proceso
go to original September 8, 2016

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto at a press conference at the Los Pinos residence in Mexico City on Aug. 31. (Henry Romero/Reuters)

There is just as much bewilderment in Latin America as there is in Mexico about President Enrique Peña Nieto’s decision to invite Donald Trump to his country, to receive him as Head of State in Los Pinos, the Mexican presidential residence, and to not have the strength to tell him - in public and to his face - that the Mexican people deserve respect and that the country will not pay for the border wall that Trump has proposed to build.

The bewilderment, jibes and criticism about Peña Nieto’s actions were vehemently expressed on social media and in the media in all the region’s countries, from Chile and Argentina to Venezuela, Columbia and the Central American nations. And there exists a certainty in these countries that Trump’s racist and anti-immigrant discourse does not only target Mexicans, but also targets all Latinos and those living without papers in the United States.

The Republican presidential candidate is, finally, at odds with the whole region. Plus, the Latin American governments know that Trump’s mass deportation plan does not distinguish between Mexicans, Central Americans and South Americans.

If Trump manages to win the election on Tuesday 8 November and takes up residence in the White House, the mass deportations would create a social and economic problem for several countries. In Mexico, the remittances that working relatives send from the US represent 2.17% of the country’s GDP. In Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala this percentage fluctuates between 9% and 18%.

For Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama, family remittances represent more than 1% of the national GDP. Plus, the South American countries that are in recession, such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, have had to depend more heavily on these remittances, which mainly come from the US, over the last two years.

This is why Trump’s anti-immigrant discourse has had a strong impact on all of the countries in Latin America. This is also why they were as astonished as the Mexican people were when Peña Nieto welcomed the New York millionaire and kept quiet about the construction of the border wall and about the insults to immigrants.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices | en Español

Related: Trump Calls Resignation of Mexico Minister a Campaign Victory (teleSUR)

Translated by Melanie Orr

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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