Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (C) shake hands with resigning Secretary of Finance Luis Videgaray (L) as the new Secretary of Finance Antonio Meade looks on, during a ceremony at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City on September 7, 2016.
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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, another relatively unpopular man among Hispanics, invited both Trump and his largest competitor, Hillary Clinton, to Mexico, but only Trump accepted the invitation.
During his presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico in order to stop “racists and criminals” from entering the United States, even going as far as saying that he will make Mexico pay for it.
Well, I think absolutely. He later moved to another ministry before his appointment on Wednesday as finance minister, a job he also held in the previous government.
Senior diplomats said Videgaray had been instrumental arranging the visit.
But within hours of leaving Mexico, 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.
Pena Nieto told Milenio television this week that he took the decision to invite Trump, and that “nobody recommended it to me”.
But analysts said Trump’s visit could hurt Mexico’s relations with the next U.S. president, whether Trump or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who declined Pena Nieto’s invitation to visit Mexico.
The depth of Videgaray and Pena Nieto’s bond was highlighted when both were embroiled in conflict-of-interest scandals, after they were found to have acquired property from a favorite government contractor.
Peña Nieto didn’t offer a reason for Videgaray’s resignation, but one analyst told The New York Times this would “help mitigate the anger”.
Criticized for not challenging Trump in front of cameras, Pena Nieto later said that he had privately told the brash NY real estate tycoon that his government would not pay for a wall. Clinton said she won’t visit Mexico before the election.
A day later, Trump tweeted that Mexico would pay for the wall. “Some say he did well, others say the debt has increased”.
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Meade, who had been at the helm of the Social Development Ministry, has served as head of finance before, namely during the presidential term of Felipe Calderon (2006-20012), and has also served as minister of foreign affairs (under Pena Nieto) and energy (under Calderon).
