The Mexican presidential election of 2018 got underway today with all four candidates feeding on the nationalist sentiment which has only grown in their country after US President Trump took office.
Whereas all four main contenders (José Antonio Meade of the ruling PRI party, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the hard-left frontrunner, conservative candidate Ricardo Anaya Cortés and finally former First Lady Margarita Zavala) have already guaranteed that Mexico will not pay for the wall, none has done so more eloquently than current frontrunner and hard left favorite Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (bottom right in the picture).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Meet the candidates for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mexico?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mexico</a>’s upcoming 2018 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/elections?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#elections</a>: corruption, crime and an economy under threat will be top issues at the polls. New feature from <a href="https://twitter.com/AmerQuarterly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AmerQuarterly</a> <a href="https://t.co/7XvKCaX61G">https://t.co/7XvKCaX61G</a> <a href="https://t.co/lr4CNSnr5A">pic.twitter.com/lr4CNSnr5A</a></p>— AS/COA Media (@ASCOAMedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/ASCOAMedia/status/955508034255704064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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During a speech this week in the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz, he stated that: “Without being disrespectful, we’re going to put him in his place,” mostly in reaction to Trump’s tweet of earlier that day claiming that Mexico was “rated the number one most dangerous country in the world.”
Most political analysts agree that the presence of a hard right President Trump in neighboring US in the White House will only make Mexico lean more left, thus favoring Mr. Obrador.
Mr. Heriberto Galindo, an ex-consul general of Mexico in Chicago, claimed that: “I‘m not saying we’re heading for war with the United States because Mexico is a pacifist.”
“But President Donald Trump is causing a lot of anger among Mexicans, and a negative attitude towards the United States, which is not helpful, beneficial or healthy, least of all with a neighboring country.”
However, given that Mexico sends some 80 percent of their exports to its giant northern neighbor and the US is also the major recipient of their foreign direct investment, many businessmen feat that souring relations between a hard-left president in Mexico and a hard-right president in the US could only deteriorate the climate further.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mexico's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could mean trouble for Donald Trump - it could boost tensions between the two countries that could reduce cooperation on border security, trade and immigration.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AMLO2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AMLO2018</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VotaMorena?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VotaMorena</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ImpeachTrump?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ImpeachTrump</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FueraPRIAN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FueraPRIAN</a><a href="https://t.co/RSZ3qmcKGl">https://t.co/RSZ3qmcKGl</a> <a href="https://t.co/P9fmJUI6jS">pic.twitter.com/P9fmJUI6jS</a></p>— TheBadHombreAccount (@inkonspicuo) <a href="https://twitter.com/inkonspicuo/status/955180641766838272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Much also depends on the NAFTA negotiations, on which much of Mexico’s trade depends.
Source:
So if relations get worse does that mean Mexico will send the US more murderers and more gang bangers?