Mexico leader voices ‘respect’ for Trump

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto extended an olive branch to Donald Trump on Friday, voicing respect for the US presidential candidate, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric has angered Mexicans.

One day after Trump accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Pena Nieto vowed to have a “frank and open dialogue” with whoever wins the November election, whether it is the real estate tycoon or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

“To Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, I want to express my highest respect,” Pena Nieto said at a White House press conference with President Barack Obama.

It was a change of tone from March, when Pena Nieto condemned Trump’s “strident tone” and compared his rhetoric to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

But Pena Nieto said Friday that he had “never done any finger-pointing” about a US candidate and that his March remarks were “taken out of context.”

“The Mexican government will work in a constructive manner and in good faith with whoever is elected,” he said.

The Mexican leader said his government was following the US election with “great interest” but that “we will not get involved, we will not opine, we will not take a position” on a decision that is in the hands of American voters.

But his foreign minister said Thursday that the Mexican government will contact the Trump and Clinton campaigns after next week’s Democratic convention.

Mexican officials said in March that the government planned to speak with the eventual primary winners in order to rebut “disinformation” said during the campaign.

Trump has infuriated Mexicans by saying “rapists” and drug dealers are coming into the United States and by vowing to make the southern neighbor pay for a huge border wall.

Pena Nieto said earlier this month that his government would not pay for the wall.