By Allan Wall
09/06/2016
If Trump wins, August 31st will go down as a milestone, with Trump’s lightning visit to Mexico immediately followed by his blockbuster immigration patriot speech in Phoenix. The visit, and Trump’s conduct, set the non-governing-party Mexican elite into a hysterical tailspin.
There’s not just one Mexican elite, you see. In this case, the elite affiliated with ruling PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) party was opposed by the other political parties and assorted high-profile intellectuals. They are furious Trump didn’t apologize for his comments about Mexican illegal alien criminals in his campaign opening speech in June 2015, allegedly a horrible insult to the Mexican people. The fact Trump showed up in Mexico City without an abject apology drives them even crazier.
We can only speculate about Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s motivation for inviting Trump. He actually invited both Trump and Hillary Clinton to visit, and Trump surprised him by calling his bluff. But, as I’ve pointed out (here and here), the Mexican government realizes that The Donald just might win the election, and Pena Nieto will then have to deal with President Trump.
Pena Nieto is not doing well politically. Maybe he thought that the Trump and/or Hillary visit would make him look like a great influence on the American election, or that neither would take him up on the offer. But it’s clear it’s hurt him.
When it comes to immigration to the U.S., all Mexican factions are in agreement: the U.S. should have open borders. But they criticize other factions for not standing up to the U.S. enough.
Here are some statements by just a few elite Mexicans. What they all have in common is they are not part of the Pena Nieto administration. There’s a lot of politics involved here, but it’s a revealing look into their mindset.
Ricardo Anaya, the (quite fair-skinned) president of the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional). During the heady days of George W. Bush, we were lectured that the PAN was a truly conservative and pro-American party and so we had to please them by surrendering on immigration.
Anaya tweeted:
What was [Pena] thinking to invite Donald Trump? We Mexicans have memory and dignity. Donald Trump is not welcome in Mexico.
¿En qué cabeza cabe invitar a Donald Trump? Los mexicanos tenemos memoria y dignidad. @realDonaldTrump no es bienvenido a México.
— RicardoAnayaC (@RicardoAnayaC) August 31, 2016
One minute later:
Instead of demanding an apology, the government permitted Donald Trump to consummate the humiliation toward Mexicans. It’s unacceptable.
En lugar de exigirle una disculpa, el Gobierno permitió que @realDonaldTrump consumara la humillación hacia los mexicanos. Es inaceptable.
— RicardoAnayaC (@RicardoAnayaC) August 31, 2016
So Mexico was “humiliated” by what Trump said in a campaign speech. One would think Mexico would be “humiliated” by its citizens going to another country and committing crimes. But to them, I guess, that’s not humiliating at all.
Josefina Vasquez Mota, the PAN’s 2012 presidential candidate. She lost, but had to get in on the Trump bashing too. Before the Trump visit, she tweeted
The meeting with Trump is inadmissible if there is not a firm defense of the Mexicans in the U.S.A. and their contributions. Respect Mexico and the Mexicans.
Inadmisible reunión con Trump si no hay defensa firme a favor de los mexicanos en EUA y sus contribuciones. Respeto a México y los mexicanos
— Josefina Vázquez Mota (@JosefinaVM) August 31, 2016
Was Josefina not listening to the press conference? President Pena Nieto affirmed his responsibility of protecting Mexicans in the United States. We would call what the Mexican government does meddling, but Mexicans of all parties support it. They just accuse opposing parties of not doing it enough.
Zavala, the wife of Felipe Calderon, the previous Mexican president, and a possible candidate for president in Mexico’s upcoming 2018 election:Mr. Donald Trump, even though you have been invited, know that you are not welcome. We Mexicans have dignity and we repudiate your discourse of hate.
Sr. @realDonaldTrump aunque lo hayan invitado, sepa que no es bienvenido. Los mexicanos tenemos dignidad y repudiamos su discurso de odio.
— Margarita Zavala (@Mzavalagc) August 31, 2016
I recall back in the 1990s, H. Ross Perot was lambasted in Mexico, and one of the chambers of Congress actually voted to bar him from entering Mexico, with one dissenting vote.
But erstwhile leftist politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (“AMLO”), perennial presidential candidate and currently head of the MORENA (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) party which he founded, actually had some reasonable things to say.
For one thing, Lopez Obrador said that “we shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of other countries so that no foreign government meddles in affairs belonging only to Mexicans.“ [Ante Trump, pide AMLO prudencia, firmeza y respeto, el Universal, September 1, 2016]
Don’t take it too seriously, as Lopez Obrador has been in favor of meddling on behalf of illegals before. But his point here is valid.
AMLO also said that Pena Nieto had invited Trump as a smokescreen to cover up an increase in gasoline prices! [La visita de Trump a México es una cortina de humo para no hablar del incremento en las gasolinas: AMLO Sin Embargo, September 1, 2016]
Readers of VDARE.COM are familiar with Jorge Castaneda, an elite Mexican who has been involved in this issue for decades. Way back in 1995, Castaneda wrote in the Atlantic that “Some Americans….dislike immigration, but there is very little they can do about it.” As Foreign Minister under Vicente Fox, Castaneda was an incessant meddler and is currently a professor at New York University, where I don’t doubt he fits in quite well.
On August 30th, the day before Trump’s visit, Castaneda had this on his Facebook
Trump has come insulting every day for more than a year, and now he is invited almost in the character of a head of state, even though he is going very low in the polls. (Trump nos ha venido insultando todos los días desde hace más de un año, y ahora se le invita con carácter casi de jefe de Estado, cuando además va muy abajo en las encuestas.) Facebook, Aug. 30th at 11:15 p.m. Jorge G. Castañeda
There’s a video that goes along with it. Just watch to see how arrogant the guy is.
On September 1st, after having seen Trump’s speech in Phoenix, Castaneda tweeted:
Trump’s speech in Arizona didn’t move a millimeter. Wall, who pays, NAFTA, deportations. They’ve chamaquearon [fooled, deceived, with a connotation of mocking] Enrique Pena Nieto.
Discurso de Trump en Arizona: no se movio un milimetro. Muro, quien paga, TLC, deportaciones. A EPN lo chamaquearon
— Jorge Castañeda (@JorgeGCastaneda) September 1, 2016
Enrique Krauze and Carlos Loret De Mola Noted Mexican intellectual Enrique Krauze appeared on a morning news show in Mexico and was interviewed by Carlos Loret de Mola (more on him later.)
Krauze hyperbolically complained that “you confront a tyrant, you don’t pacify him,” comparing the meeting to that between Chamberlain and Hitler. Though Krauze doesn’t think Trump will win, he claimed that even if Trump is President Mexico’s leader should not meet with him. He added that Trump should publicly apologize to Mexicans for insulting them, promise not to build a wall and not to deport 11 million illegal Mexicans [Krauze: Trump debe ofrecer una disculpa pública a los mexicanos Televisa, August 31, 2016]
Even if you don’t understand Spanish, if you watch the video of the interview you can see the arrogance of Enrique Krauze.
As for star Mexican newsman Carlos Loret de Mola, the interviewer, he’s actually Carlos Loret de Mola Jr. His father, Carlos Loret de Mola Sr., wrote an Excelsior column in 1982 entitled “The Great Invasion: Mexico Recovers Its Own” in which he openly exulted over the reconquest (through immigration) of the U.S. Southwest. (See my You Say You Want a Reconquista?)
I’m guessing Carlos Jr. picked up some ideas from the Old Man.
There are more examples, but you get the point. For the first time in years, the Mexican elite is truly afraid of a U.S. politician. They are afraid that the jig is up, and Donald Trump is going to get control of the border.
President Pena Nieto took a risk by inviting Trump (and Hillary) but it backfired on him. So right after the Trump visit, Pena Nieto began arguing once again that Mexico will not pay for the wall.
But it doesn’t matter what the Mexican president says. President Trump could compel Mexico to pay for a wall by garnishing a portion of the billions of dollars sent back in remittances from Mexicans in the U.S.
The only way for Mexico to stop that would be to tell its people not to send money back from the U.S. Can you imagine that?
Besides, is the “Mexico’s going to pay for it” really the main point anyway? The real point is not having Mexico pay for it but the fact that a wall would be built at all. And it’s not just a wall, but the whole set of proposals Trump is making, of a potential presidency that is actually working to secure our borders and protect our workers. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And that’s why these Mexican elitists are in a tizzy. Here at VDARE.COM we can’t endorse candidates, but wouldn’t a Trump Triumph be worth it, to see the resulting comeuppance of the arrogant Mexican elite?
American citizen Allan Wall moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008after many years residing in Mexico. Allan’s wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.
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