Donald Trump and weak Mexican politicos

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign's stump. 

By Alfredo Santana. 

Unlike the immediate acts of condemnation expressed by England’s political establishment, and the criticism of French authorities about Donald Trump’s  xenophobic and quasi-racist discourse against Muslim immigrants, the Mexican government’s respond in defense of undocumented migrants has been embarrassingly silent.

Last week, Trump’s cacophony forced several European governments to ban Trump from visiting them, or to issue global warnings about the fascist-tinged campaign the New York businessman runs, and the ongoing tarnishing image of the United States abroad for letting him do so. Even Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative Israeli prime minister lambasted the blonde’s absurdity.

The Mexican government, on the other hand, has remained obnoxiously quiet about Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States, and for his idea to build a migrant-proof wall along the 2,000 mile border. He also labeled migrants as rapists.

Weeks after Trump started his ballistic scourge against all things Mexican, I read a comment from Jose Antonio Meade, the former Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, who cast Trump as a politician with a lackluster approach toward undocumented migrants. A day after, Claudia Ruiz Massieu replaced him as the new minister.

So far, she hasn’t said anything critical of Trump, or of the Republican Party’s lenient handling of the brazen candidate. For Mexican officials, it’s been a long held, and absurd  tradition not to intervene into foreign affairs of others, a practice well honed by PRI governments. Little difference has made whether at stake are human rights matters, such as in Venezuela, or the current presidential political campaign in the US,  which has swayed public opinion against those unable to defend themselves in equal footing.

I find this position weak, coward but officially convenient, particularly when immigrants send about 23 billion dollars a year to Mexico in remittances, which contribute greatly to that country’s economic stability.

I don’t know what it would take to stop Trump from spewing forth vile against unprotected migrants, unless he commits a crime, or someone files charges against him for conducting dubious business.  It’s likely he will not change his virulent campaign, and his tune will continue until his party nominates its candidate, well into summer of 2016.

But many foreign governments insisted their anger against Trump and his bullying rhetoric is well healed. They concluded that United States needs a president able to establish good diplomatic ties with its allies, and not a bar brawler searching to punch anyone he sees for political gain. Hence the monumental lack of vision of the current Mexican government.