The comments follow the resignation of Luis Videgaray as finance minister on Wednesday after he came under fire for Trump’s visit to Mexico City last week, which Mexican diplomats said he was instrumental in arranging.
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Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray has stepped down, his ministry said on Wednesday, pushing out of the government the closest ally of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has been under pressure since Donald Trump’s controversial visit last week.
A spokesperson for the ministry said Videgaray would not take on another public office.
Former finance secretary Jose Antonio Meade, who has since served as foreign relations secretary and social development secretary, will replace Videgaray.
The new finance minister, Meade, is a friend of Videgaray and had started in the administration as foreign minister before moving to the social development ministry previous year.
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.
It was Videgaray’s idea to invite Mr. Trump, according to several Mexican news media reports, though Nieto later claimed it was his own.
“I let them know where the United States stands”, Trump said during a televised forum.
Meade, a friend of Videgaray’s, was foreign minister when Trump launched his presidential bid in June 2015.
Trump has cast his visit to Mexico as a statesmanlike effort to reach out to a country he had alienated.
Meade must also “give priority to investment projects and social programmes that have been most effective in fighting poverty”, said Nieto.
Videgaray acted as Pena Nieto’s campaign manager during his 2012 election campaign and has been seen as the architect of many administration policies.
Both men were embroiled in conflict-of-interest scandals in late 2014, after Pena Nieto’s wife and Videgaray were found to have acquired property from a major government contractor.
A day later, Trump tweeted that Mexico would pay for the wall.
It also reignited debate between Trump and Peña Nieto over the funding of Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. -Mexico border.
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The economy has consistently fallen short of government growth forecasts during Videgaray’s tenure, and contracted in the second quarter for the first time in three years.
