Mexico president talks with Trump as faces populist pressure at home

IXMIQUILPAN, MEXICO (Reuters) Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spoke with US President Donald Trump by phone yesterday ahead of talks among their officials in Washington next week as the Mexico leader faces populist pressure from a frontrunner in the 2018 election. In his call with Trump, Pena Nieto highlighted the importance of the bilateral relationship, and both leaders agreed to meet in the near future, his office said in a statement.

Next week, senior Mexican officials will hold meetings with Trump’s top aides in Washington, to discuss bilateral relations such as security, trade and migration.

Meanwhile, Mexican presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced plans to tour major US cities in February, raising pressure on the government to assert itself with the Trump administration.

“Enough of being passive,” Lopez Obrador’s leftist Morena party said in a statement. “We should put a national emergency plan in place to face the damage and reverse the protectionist policies of Donald Trump.”

Lopez Obrador, a populist known as AMLO, is leading in most early polls ahead of Mexico’s 2018 presidential elections.

Morena, which he founded after breaking with Mexico’s main leftist party, has vowed to fight corruption, disrupt a sweeping reform of the key energy sector and promote a more nationalist vision for the country.

The White House website says that Trump is committed to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and would move to withdraw if no “fair deal” is forthcoming.

Many towns in Mexico are worried about another Trump promise, that he will make Mexico pay for a border wall, possibly by blocking wire transfers out of the United States from Mexican nationals. “We shouldn’t pay for the wall,” said Christina Validez, waiting to pick up a wire transfer from her husband in the United States at a bank in Ixmiquilpan in the state of Hidalgo.

“It’s the other way around, all United States presidents should be grateful that all the migrants have helped the economy.”