'A Complex Moment' - Mexico Is Looking to Strike Back Against Trump Christopher Woody - Pulse
go to original February 24, 2017

Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto has struggled in Donald Trump’s shadow, but now he can turn that to his benefit. (Hector Vivas/STR/LatinContent/Getty Images)

Update: Mexico's Retaliation Against Trump May Already Be Taking Shape (Business Insider)

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly visited Mexico this week, where they met with the country's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and other senior officials.

Mexican ire with Trump has been inflamed by his hardline stance on issues like immigration and border control, as well as by his administration's inconsistencies on some of those policies.

Kelly and Tillerson's meetings with Mexican officials come as the Trump White House seems ever more committed to imposing measures detrimental to Mexico's interest.



But the Mexican government looks to be assessing steps to raise the stakes for Trump and gain leverage in any future negotiations — whether they be over restructuring the NAFTA trade deal or the construction of a border wall.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, during a press conference with his US counterpart, said US-Mexico ties were at a "complex moment in the relationship."

In private, he was more assertive.

"Time has been wearing down on President Donald Trump himself," Videgaray told members of the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, according to audio and transcripts obtained by Mexican newspaper La Jornada.

"He has had some important stumbles that have placed him in a reality of a system of weights," Videgaray said — stumbles that have shown him "the nonomnipotance of a president of the United States, that he is a fenced-in president."

Videgaray said that the Trump administration's aggressive posture would give the Mexican government a "very important argument of legitimacy" when addressing potential allies in the American academic and businesses communities, as well as in the US Congress.

He also said the Peña Nieto administration was considering a more assertive response to one of Trump's more controversial proposals.

Read the rest at Pulse

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Related: US Seen as ‘Hostile’ for Mexicans Last Year: Foreign Affairs Secretary Warned of US Xenophobia (Mexico News Daily)

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Related: Mexico: We’ll Go to the U.N. to Defend ‘Human Rights’ of Mexicans in U.S. (CNSNews.com)

Related: Mexico Border Immigration: Undocumented Immigrants Filling Local Jails, Police Warn Trump’s Policies Increase Crime (IBTimes)

Related: Donald Trump Has Given the Mexican President the Biggest Gift He Could Wish For (The Washington Post)

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Related: Trump May Be the Only Hope for the Mexican President's Party's Reelection (NYMag.com)

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