Following Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto has been met with criticism for inviting the man who has – for more than a year – spoken negatively about Mexicans and even gone as far as calling them rapists and murderers. With Trump’s presidential campaign literally amounting to a wall that’s meant to keep Mexicans out of the United States, many wondered why he’d even meet with Trump. Even revered Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu wrote a scathing op-ed destroying EPN. “168 years ago, Antonio López de Santa Ana gave away almost half of our territory. Yesterday, Peña Nieto gave away the little dignity we had left.”
Today, EPN finally responded to all the criticism with his own op-ed. On El Universal, EPN said meeting with Trump was necessary. “Dialogue is one of democracy’s basic guiding principles; that’s why this past Friday, I invited both candidates to converse about our bilateral relationship,” he wrote.
“It’s important to meet with both candidates, but even more so with Trump, because there are things he should know directly from the president of Mexico, starting with the sentiments of the Mexican people,” he continued. “That’s why in our meeting, I let him know three things.”
He went on to break down his three points, saying that he started off by telling Trump that Mexicans feel wronged and that they deserve respect. EPN then let Trump know that the United States’ and Mexico’s economies are intimately related. And lastly, he let him know that the border is a challenge that requires both sides to work together.
“Weapons arrive illegally from the United States, and so do thousands of dollars that strengthen criminal organizations,” he added. “These weapons and that money, a product of the earnings gained by cartels because of drug consumption in the United States, generate violence in our country and that must be stopped. In my conversation with Trump about the border, I was also very clear: Mexico will not pay for any wall.”
Read the entire letter here.