How Mexico Deals with Trump: Its Citizens Loathe Him. Its Politicians Trying to Find Common Ground Jon Lee Anderson - The New Yorker
go to original October 2, 2017

RAPE TRUMP (Indecline)

A few months ago, at Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional, workers were cleaning up after a triumphant viewing of “L’Elisir d’Amore,” broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera House. Outside, in the bright sunshine, Reforma Avenue was closed to traffic for a protest. Angry people gathered on the theatre steps, waving Mexican flags and hoisting effigies of Donald Trump, and then began marching toward El Ángel, a century-old monument to Mexican independence. One protester carried a placard that read “Mexico Deserves Respect.” Another held a poster of Trump with a Hitler mustache and the tagline “Twitler.” A local activist known as Juanito carried a large American flag bearing an unflattering image of Trump and the message “Enough! Gringo Racist, Full of Shit Trump, Son of Satan, You’re a Danger to the World.” Juanito said that he was prepared to take up arms against the American incursion, demonstrating his resolve by pointing out the scars of old bullet wounds.

Trump began his assault on Mexico almost as soon as he announced his candidacy for President. In a rambling speech at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, he blamed Mexico for stealing American jobs, and for allowing its worst elements to cross the border: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.” To solve the problem, he pledged, “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.” These ideas proved popular with Trump supporters, and rants about Mexico were soon a regular feature of his campaign events. As he sharpened his routine, Mexicans became not only rapists and drug dealers but also murderers. Trump promised to overhaul U.S. immigration policy and to deport “bad hombres” by the millions. At rallies, he asked, “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” and the crowds howled back, “Mexico!” If Mexico would not pay, he suggested, he might cancel visas for Mexicans and block migrants living in the U.S. from sending remittances back home.

In Mexico, Trump’s insults and threats have made him a figure of loathing. A poll in July found that eighty-eight per cent of Mexicans viewed him unfavorably. During the march, as protesters gathered at El Ángel to sing the national anthem, one group held up a large sign that said “Make America Hate Again.” Another brandished a Trump piñata, its mouth obscenely open in the manner of a sex doll. Yet the demonstration lacked the urgency that typifies politics in Mexico, where, last winter, rioters protesting gas prices set tires ablaze and sacked hundreds of shops. Along Reforma Avenue, pushcart venders sold ice cream, and groups of friends posed for smiling selfies. As it turned out, most of the political left had skipped the event, perceiving it as a thinly disguised rally of support for the highly unpopular government of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Since his election, in 2012, Peña Nieto has fumbled his way through a series of scandals. He campaigned on promises to curb crime and improve security; instead, during his time in office, more than ninety thousand Mexicans have fallen victim to homicide. His government has been lambasted for a lacklustre investigation into the disappearance and presumed mass murder of forty-three teacher trainees, a crime that involved state police and, allegedly, local politicians, the military, and a drug cartel. He supported a series of exceedingly corrupt state governors, including several who became fugitives from the law. His wife struck a deal with a government building contractor to buy a multimillion-dollar house on unusually favorable terms. In 2015, the notorious drug kingpin Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán tunnelled his way out of a maximum-security prison, with evident official complicity. And, this summer, the Administration was accused of using spyware to target government critics.

... During Trump’s campaign, one of the chief objects of his disdain was the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which he called “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.” He blamed the treaty for sending manufacturing jobs to Mexico, and vowed to get Americans a better deal, or to scrap it entirely. This summer, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico began negotiations to overhaul NAFTA. Peña Nieto has little leverage, and any pushback against Trump carries the risk of losing the agreement entirely. But if he appears too cozy with Trump he risks losing support at home, and he cannot afford to lose much more. At the march, one protester’s sign chastised Peña Nieto as a vendepatria: a traitor willing to sell his own country. Another one, less decorous, said simply, “Peña, fuck your mother.”

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Related: Will Mexico Go Down the Populist Route in 2018? (Modern Diplomacy)

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