Mr Pena Nieto’s comments are the most forceful so far against Mr Trump, whose rise to the top of the Republican primary races has spooked Mexicans of all social strata.
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“I have to say that I regret (the plan), and of course, I can’t agree with this American politician’s position”, Mr Nieto told Excelsior Magazine.
“That’s the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived”, Pena Nieto said. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration.
“I am not going to pay for that f***ing wall”, Mr Fox told U.S. television network Fusion. “He should pay for it”.
Trump, who has also aroused concern among many in his own party with his proposals, has accused Mexico of sending rapists and drug runners across the border and vowed to increase fees on some Mexican visas and all border crossing cards to help make Mexico pay for the wall.
Pena Nieto’s comments follow tough talk from his predecessors, with former president Vicente Fox recently saying Trump was “absolutely a racist” and slamming the belief that Mexico would pay “for that f–ing wall”.
Mr Pena Nieto said in an interview with the newspaper El Universal that he condemns Mr Trump’s comments.
He added: “It seems to me [such statements] come from an ignorance of Mexico”.
The president did promise, however, that he would respect America’s politics and attempt to work with whoever becomes the next elected leader.
Mr Pena Nieto’s chief of staff, Francisco Guzman, said earlier this month the administration would contact the campaigns of the winners of the Republican and Democratic nominations to combat the “disinformation” being said about Mexico.
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Outrage over Trump’s comments about Mexicans and immigrants began as soon as the mogul’s campaign took off last June.
