Mexico scolds Trump

VEXED: PRESIDENT PENA NIETO URGES US LEADER TO STOP SOWING DISCORD

US president will keep troops along border until wall is built.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday sharply rebuked Donald Trump over his plan to send National Guard troops to the border, joining with opponents to tell the US leader not to vent his domestic political “frustration” on Mexico.

Trump has been unable to get the US Congress or Mexico to fully fund his planned border wall and on Thursday said he would probably keep National Guard troops along the Mexican border until it is built.

In an unusually combative address, a stern-looking Pena Nieto urged Trump to stop sowing discord between the two nations and demanded a more respectful tone in bilateral relations.

“If your recent declarations are due to frustration over issues to do with internal policy, your laws, or your Congress, direct yourself

to them, not to Mexicans,” Pena Nieto said.

For months, Mexico has been locked in tortuous negotiations with the US and Canada to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), but hopes have risen recently that some kind of preliminary deal could be within reach.

“President Trump: if you want to reach agreements with Mexico, we stand ready,” Pena Nieto said. “We will not allow negative

rhetoric to define our actions.”

Pena Nieto and Trump have had a strained relationship ever since the New Yorker launched his campaign in 2015 with the claim that some Mexican migrants are criminals and rapists.

The White House says mobilising the National Guard was part of Trump’s strategy to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country, whom he blames for serious crime.

Pena Nieto has faced

criticism for failing to take a tough line against Trump in the past. Trump’s comments have thrust the countries’ relationship into the centre of Mexico’s presidential campaign, where Pena Nieto’s party is trailing.

All the presidential candidates on Thursday criticised Trump’s plan to militarise the border.

The front-runner in the race, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said Trump’s scheme was political “propaganda.” – Reuters