Opposing Trump's wall
Since Donald Trump moved into the White House, not a day has passed during which the US president hasn't dominated the newspaper headlines and the primetime news broadcasts. Decrees are being issued thick and fast, whether they relate to his economic worldview or his almost pathological obsession with building a wall to keep his Mexican neighbors at bay.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had planned to travel to Washington, DC, next week to offer a 10-point plan for bilateral relations and the polite-but-firm assertion that "no, we will not pay for the wall," as Trump has insisted over and over that his neighbors would do. Before that could happen, however, the US president fired off yet another rude tweet - one that could only be interpreted as a cancellation of his invitation to his Mexican counterpart. And, in his first week in office, Trump managed to bring diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico to their lowest point in over a century.
By allowing Mexico to participate, unwillingly and for far too long, in what appears to be Trump's latest lowbrow reality show, Pena Nieto missed his last chance to regain support at home. It is clear that Mexico will refuse to pay for the wall. However, Pena Nieto's waiting until the last minute to cancel his trip to Washington and his government's general reluctance to say no to Trump have infuriated Mexicans, many of whom insisted right from the start that Trump should not be permitted to victimize their country.
Unite against Trump
Mexico has teetered on the brink of economic disaster for decades. Even a small step in the wrong direction could be enough to dangerously destabilize the country. But if Trump is capable of drastically rewriting the political future of the United States, why shouldn't Mexico be capable of it, too?
When will the US voters who helped Trump to victory understand that their lives will not improve, that their new president represents only his own interests, and that his egotistical political style will not be successful in the long run? How long will they let him go on issuing presidential decrees? What has happened to the US's strong democratic structures - starting with Congress?
Everyone needs to support the growing resistance. Mexicans, too, must join together and take to the streets in solidarity with their true neighbors: the American people.