’Traitor to Mexico’ Pena Nieto Declared ’Persona Non Grata’ in Chiapas Protests teleSUR
go to original August 8, 2017

As the people chanted “Fuera, Peña, fuera!” – “Leave, Peña, leave!” – speakers denounced the structural reforms introduced by the PRI president (Reuters/EFE)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been declared “Persona Non Grata” and a traitor to Mexico by the people of Chiapas, who have blasted his neoliberal economic policies and what locals call his servility to the United States.

Residents of Chiapas state's Chiapa de Corzo municipality have been protesting the unpopular president with street assemblies early Monday followed by skirmishes and pitched battles with security forces. Residents erected barricades in the streets and launched rocks at federal and state police, whom they accuse of upholding Peña Nieto's repressive, criminal and unpopular PRI-ruled state.

Protesters accuse Peña Nieto of selling the country off to multinational corporations, ramming through unpopular reforms and failing to protect the interests of the people — who are faced with increasing violence at the hands of gangs, paramilitaries and security forces as well as dispossession at the hands of foreign mining firms.

Peña Nieto's visit is meant to mark the 10th annual International Day of Indigenous Peoples which takes place Wednesday. In Mexico, there are 15.7 million Indigenous people comprised of 68 different ethnicities. In Chiapas alone, there are 1.5 million Indigenous people.

Locals allege that the president plans to supervise the handover of the city's newly-restored monuments to the Banamex Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization that belongs to Citibanamex — a subsidiary of New York-based multinational financial services giant Citigroup.

The rumored move illustrates Peña Nieto's eagerness to sell the country out to U.S. corporate interests, according to local groups.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Mexico vs Trump: Has Peña Nieto Betrayed His Country? (Mexico Voices)

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