Videgaray’s resignation comes a week after US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump visited Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto. The visit was widely criticised by Mexicans both in the national press and on social media.
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Two people familiar with the matter said that Videgaray, who had once been one of the favorites to succeed Pena Nieto, will be replaced by Jose Antonio Meade, a former finance minister now serving as the minister for social development.
That didn’t happen – Trump’s presidential and diplomatic approach disintegrated after he returned to USA soil, and Peña Nieto was roundly criticized for failing to call Trump out on his inflammatory rhetoric toward the country to his face.
Trump on many occasions throughout his presidential campaign criticized Mexican migrants, describing them as criminals and rapists. Meade previously held the finance portfolio in 2011 and 2012. Such remarks led President Pena Nieto to compare the American to Italian fascist leader Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.
Videgaray will not take another public post, the spokeswoman said. He also helped coordinate the campaign team for Peña Nieto’s presidential bid in 2012.
However, Trump’s visit nearly immediately caused public relations problems, when he appeared later that day at a rally in Arizona.
Trump told Matt Lauer: “The people that arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government”.
But within hours of departing the country, Trump was telling a cheering crowd of supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, that Mexico would pay for the border wall “100 percent”, prompting fresh ridicule of Pena Nieto at home.
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President Pena Nieto said the new minister will “apply adjustments to public spending” but there will not be any rise in taxes.
