Trump: The Final Blow to the Peñata

Upon assuming the presidency in December 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto was to be the new face of Mexico. The youngest pres­ident ever to be elected and the husband of a soap opera star, Peña Nieto was a new hope for the PRI in its return to power. He started off his presidency initiating major reforms, seek­ing to improve the country’s education, energy, and telecommunications industries. A February 2014 Time magazine cover said Peña Nieto was “Saving Mexico.” Today, few would say that he has succeeded. His plan to open the petroleum industry to foreign investment coincided with the drop in global oil prices; his ambitious ed­ucation reforms resulted in on-going violent protests from Mexico’s strong teachers’ union. These failed reforms, coupled with the numer­ous missteps and blunders that have character­ized his presidency, have left the Mexican public utterly disappointed.

According to the newspaper Reforma, the Mexican President sits at a 23 percent approval rating, the lowest for a president since the paper began polling in 1995 and a big difference from the 50 percent approval rating he held when he first took office. Peña Nieto’s presidency has been plagued by corruption scandals, a strug­gling economy, and a high crime rate. Mexicans perceive their president as out of touch with their concerns and doing little to combat the country’s problems.

Arguably, the first major misstep was Peña Nieto’s handling of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa. On September 24, 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College disappeared while en route to Mexico City to commemorate the anniver­sary of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. The stu­dents, who were traveling together in a convoy of buses that they had hijacked, were stopped by police in the city of Iguala, Guerrero. The student practice of hijacking buses, and lat­er returning them, was not uncommon and largely tolerated. However, that night students clashed violently with police and 43 of roughly 100 were taken into custody. That was the last time they were seen.

Official reports would later conclude that police had handed students over to the Guerreros Unidos (“United Warriors”), a local crime syndi­cate that presumably killed the students. Mass protests erupted in the following months as citizens demanded answers and were unhap­py with the President’s handling of the event. Thousands called for Peña Nieto to resign.

Obviously, a major incident such as this one would incite backlash against the govern­ment; however, it was Peña Nieto’s handling of the situation that made matters worse. After news broke of the missing students, it took the Mexican president 11 days to address what had occurred and 33 days to meet with the families of the missing students. Instead of traveling to see them in their state of Guerrero, the Mexican president invited them to Los Pinos, the presi­dential residence in Mexico City. His move was seen as inconsiderate and helped paint a picture of an aloof, disinterested president.

In November 2014, in the midst of the miss­ing student debacle, Peña Nieto’s second major misstep occurred. Prominent Mexican journal­ist Carmen Aristegui revealed that a home pur­chased by Peña Nieto’s wife was registered in the name of Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantú, the owner of a construction company that won gov­ernment contracts when Peña Nieto was both governor and president. The potential conflict of interest looked a lot like a corruption scandal and further marred the already struggling pres­ident’s image. To make matters worse, it was later found that Peña Nieto had used anoth­er house owned by Hinojosa Cantú during his 2012 presidential campaign and, despite official statements saying otherwise, while he was also in office. These conflict-of-interest scandals damaged the president’s reputation, as he made anti-corruption an essential part of his platform.

Peña Nieto’s mistakes and inability to deal with major domestic issues have caused the Mexican people to ridicule their own presi­dent. He is characterized as aloof and uncon­cerned, out of touch with the people whom he governs, merely a pretty-boy puppet of his par­ty. Unfortunately, he has hardly been success­ful in combatting this image. When running for president, Peña Nieto struggled to name three books that influenced him, naming the Bible and stumbling through his other two answers, mis­matching authors and titles. More recently, a re­port accused the Mexican president of plagiariz­ing large portions of his thesis for his law degree. It was revealed that nearly one-third of the 682 paragraphs in the 202-page document were plagiarized, with 20 paragraphs being copied word-for-word from a book written by a former Mexican president. Peña Nieto’s alma mater has since confirmed the president’s plagiarism and thousands have appealed for his law de­gree to be nullified. These crucial missteps have prompted his critics, growing in number, to paint him as inept, a man who has benefited from privilege, excused from the hard work which the majority of Mexicans have endured.

But it was Peña Nieto’s most recent misstep that could be his final blow. It came as a shock when in the midst of the plagiarism scandal, economic struggles, and a rising murder rate, Peña Nieto invited Trump to visit Mexico. The Republican nominee had hit the campaign trail running last summer with his disparaging comments about Mexican migrants, calling them criminals and “rapists” and accusing Mexico of not “sending their best.” The presidential hopeful took the is­sue even further, promising to build a wall along the border and assuring that Mexico would pay for it. While resonating with his supporters, these remarks sparked outrage with many in the U.S., with major companies breaking ties with the presidential candidate. Following Trump’s comments, Univision, the American Spanish language television network, canceled its plans to broadcast the Miss Universe and Miss U.S.A. beauty pageants, which were owned by Trump at the time. Other companies such as Macy’s and NBC Universal soon followed.

The anger over Trump’s inflammatory remarks and border wall plans was not confined to the U.S.—Latinos and Mexicans everywhere spoke out. While online there were songs and viral vid­eos that bashed the presidential candidate, the bashing was also done quite literally in Mexico. In response to Trump’s presidential campaign, innovative entrepreneurs began making piña­tas depicting the Republican candidate, which, to no surprise, have proved to be a smash hit. According to a June poll in The Politico, Trump carries a mere two percent approval rating in Mexico. This is the man that former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, has called a “liar,” “abso­lutely crazy,” and “the hated gringo.” Countless Mexican politicians and celebrities have weighed in. Peña Nieto himself has compared the pres­idential candidate to Mussolini and Hitler. So what in the world led Peña Nieto to invite Donald Trump to Mexico?

Mexico’s arch nemesis was coming to Mexico because the country’s president was welcom­ing him. Now, to give Peña Nieto credit, the Mexican president had invited both Clinton and Trump to visit. Clinton declined, while Trump, on the other hand, jumped at the opportuni­ty. There was nothing for him to lose. It was a chance for Trump to show off his ability to be presidential and negotiate with foreign dignitar­ies, with a nice photo op of him shaking hands with Peña Nieto, all while in Mexico.

Mexicans couldn’t believe what was happening. Was it possible that Peña Nieto was so out of touch with his country’s people that he would invite the Republican nominee? Although al­ready a blunder, there was still a chance for the Mexican president to save face. Maybe Peña Nieto would stand up to Trump and defend his country and Mexican migrants in the U.S. But unfortunately, in the eyes of most Mexicans, Peña Nieto did no such thing. Instead of cor­recting the visiting presidential hopeful or de­manding an apology, Peña Nieto was tame. He stood silently as Trump repeated his promise to build a wall. He referred to Trump’s incendiary comments about Mexicans as “misunderstand­ings” and emphasized the importance of mutu­al respect. After their meeting he called the ex­change “open and productive.”

Public opinion in Mexico viewed the meeting as an utter disaster. In the words of Esteban Illades, editor of Mexican magazine Nexos, “I think it was the biggest humiliation a Mexican president has suffered on his own territory in the last 50 years.” And although this might sound extreme, this is an accurate reflection of how those in Mexico are perceiving the event. Again, smell­ing opportunity, smart entrepreneurs sprang into action. Today, Peña Nieto piñatas marketed as “peñatas” join those depicting Donald Trump.

Unfortunately for those in Mexico, unlike with a real piñata, the ending to this story isn’t so sweet. While the U.S. is in the midst of election season, Mexico has two more years until its presiden­tial elections in 2018. And until then, Peña Nieto faces a serious uphill battle. Local elections oc­curred this past June and the President’s party, the longstanding PRI, performed the worst it has ever performed in its 87-year history. As Peña Nieto continues to lose support, it seems unlike­ly that he can save his sinking ship. His missteps have defined his presidency, vastly overshad­owing any achievements, and unfortunately for the Peña Nieto administration, his latest one appears to be unforgivable. It was a self-inflict­ed mistake, as it was Peña Nieto himself who opened the door for Trump, the brash presiden­tial candidate, to come in and give the final blow to Mexico’s “peñata.”