Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray, a key organiser in Donald Trump’s controversial visit to Mexico, has resigned, a ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Advertisement
According to media reports, Trump’s visit to Mexico was widely seen as a diplomatic failure that only served to strengthen the candidate’s standing among potential voters by making him seem more presidential.
The Mexican president and Trump later offered different accounts of what transpired during their meetings. His foreign policy proposals also include building a wall on the southern border, which he has promised Mexico will pay for.
A ministry spokeswoman said Videgaray would step down not long after the government said Pena Nieto would hold a news conference later on Wednesday morning.
Nieto was scheduled to make a statement and is expected to name Jose Antonio Meade, Mexico’s social development minister, as Videgaray’s replacement.
As finance minister, Videgaray pushed to open the nation’s oil industry.
Speaking at a town hall last Thursday where he fielded questions from young people, Pena Nieto sought to defend the decision to invite Trump to visit.
Trump met with Peña Nieto last week ahead of a speech the GOP nominee gave later in the day in Phoenix, Ariz., on immigration.
He acknowledged Mexicans’ “enormous indignation” over Trump’s presence in the country and repeated that he told him in person Mexico would in no way pay for the proposed border wall.
Advertisement
A day later, Trump tweeted that Mexico would pay for the wall, Pena Nieto fired back his own tweet saying that would “never” happen.
