Lopez Obrador said he wanted to avoid confrontation with the United States, and that ideals such as justice and universal brotherhood were more important than borders.

The Mexican president also ordered his foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday. </s> Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded in a public letter he posted on Twitter Thursday in which he alluded to the U.S. as a nation of immigrants. "The Statue of Liberty is not an empty symbol," he wrote.

López Obrador added that he will send his foreign relations secretary to Washington on Friday. </s> Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks to the media during a news conference, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, May 21, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - “America First is a fallacy,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told U.S. President Donald Trump in a letter on Thursday, responding to a White House announcement it was imposing a blanket 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico from June 10.

Lopez Obrador said he wanted to avoid confrontation with the United States, and that ideals such as justice and universal brotherhood were more important than borders.

The Mexican president also ordered his foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday. </s> MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - “America First is a fallacy,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told U.S. President Donald Trump in a letter on Thursday, responding to a White House announcement it was imposing a blanket 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico from June 10.

Lopez Obrador said he wanted to avoid confrontation with the United States, and that ideals such as justice and universal brotherhood were more important than borders.

The Mexican president also ordered his foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday. </s> - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Thursday he will not attend a planned Jan. 31 meeting with President Donald J. Trump, hours after Trump tweeted that the meeting should be canceled if Mexico won't pay for a border wall.

Pena Nieto's message on Twitter ended days of uncertainty about how he would respond to Trump's aggressive stance toward the country, and illustrated the challenges world leaders are likely to face in dealing with Trump's voluble, Twitter-based diplomacy.

"This morning we have informed the White House I will not attend the working meeting planned for next Tuesday," Pena Nieto tweeted.

"Mexico reaffirms its willingness to work with the United States to reach agreements that benefit both nations," he added.

In Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded to the Mexican president's announcement, saying: "We'll look for a date to schedule something in the future. We will keep the lines of communication open."

Earlier Thursday, Trump had tweeted that "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting" in Washington D.C.

Trump said Wednesday he would start building a U.S.-Mexico border wall and has vowed to make Mexico pay for it. Mexico opposes the wall and has repeatedly said it won't pay.

Officials had said Mexico was "considering" canceling after the border wall announcement, but Trump appeared to beat Mexico to the punch in that game of brinkmanship.

Former foreign relations secretary Jorge Castaneda told local media that after Trump's tweet, "Pena Nieto has no other choice but to say `I'm not going."'

Trump's unpredictable style appeared to catch Mexico's normally quiet and cautious diplomacy off guard.

"I think that, in general, diplomacy is not conducted via Twitter," Finance Secretary Jose Antonio Meade told Radio Formula.

Mexico's best-known opposition politician, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, tweeted that "in the face of Trump's latest outburst, don't go to the meeting, and submit an urgent complaint to the U.N. for human rights violations." </s> President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that he would defend the interests of Mexicans but wanted to avoid a clash with Washington, after the Trump administration announced it would slap punitive tariffs on its southern neighbor unless it did more to stop irregular migration.

“There is no need for confrontation,” the leftist president said at his daily morning news conference.

Mexico is heavily dependent on trade and this year has surged to become the No. 1 trading partner of the United States, eclipsing Canada and China. The Mexican peso slid nearly 3 percent overnight on the news, to almost 20 pesos to the dollar.

López Obrador said he has received broad support from the Mexican public after Trump announced late Thursday that he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods coming from Mexico unless it stopped the migration flow.

[Trump and Mexico’s new president got off to a good start]

“I want to insist that we will not fall into any provocation; we are going to act prudently,” said the president. “With respect to U.S. authorities, and President Donald Trump, we think that all these conflicts in the bilateral relationship must be confronted and resolved with dialogue.”

López Obrador dispatched his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, to Washington on Friday for urgent talks.

The White House plans to launch the penalties on June 10 and increase them if Central American and other migrants continue to cross Mexico to the United States.

López Obrador has maintained a cordial relationship with Trump despite significant policy differences on immigration and other issues.

Mexico has responded to concerns about the growing surge of migrants at the U.S. border by stepping up deportations of undocumented immigrants and intensifying its scrutiny of people crossing its southern border.

“We haven’t just been sitting around with our arms crossed,” said López Obrador.

He said that Mexico would enforce its immigration laws but would not take actions that violate human rights. He noted that people were flowing out of Central America “not by choice, but necessity” because of violence and a lack of jobs.

López Obrador has sought to enlist the United States and other countries in supporting a “Marshall Plan” for Central America, aimed at improving infrastructure and job opportunities in a way that would discourage migration. But while Washington has offered loan guarantees, so far it has not committed substantial funding to the plan.

Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10

Trump’s tariff threat to Mexico may upend trade deal, undermine the economy

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news </s> (MEXICO CITY) — A senior government official says Mexico's president is "considering" canceling next week's visit to Washington following President Donald Trump's order to begin construction of a wall between the two countries.

The decision to rethink the visit comes amid growing outrage in Mexico, and a sense among many that President Enrique Pena Nieto has been too weak in the face of Trump's tough policy stance.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration "is considering" scrapping the Jan. 31 visit. "That's what I can tell you." </s> MEXICO CITY — When Donald J. Trump called some Mexican immigrants rapists, threatened to deport millions of them and promised to build a wall to keep others out, Mexican officials counseled caution, saying it was merely bluster from an unlikely candidate who, if elected, would never follow through.

Now, after just five days in office, President Trump is looking a lot like Candidate Trump — and the Mexicans are furious.

With just a few strokes of the pen on Wednesday, the new American president signed an executive order to beef up the nation’s deportation force and start construction on a new wall between the nations. Adding to the perceived insult was the timing of the order: It came on the first day of talks between top Mexican officials and their counterparts in Washington, and just days before a meeting between the two countries’ presidents.

The action was enough to prompt President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico to consider scrapping his plans to visit the White House on Tuesday, according to Mexican officials. In a video message delivered over Twitter on Wednesday night, Mr. Peña Nieto did not address whether he would cancel the meeting, saying only that future steps would be taken in consultation with the country’s lawmakers. Instead, he reiterated his commitment to protect the interests of Mexico and the Mexican people, and chided the move in Washington to continue with the wall. </s> Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took the oath of office Saturday as Mexico's first leftist president in over 70 years, marking a turning point in one of the world's most radical experiments in opening markets and privatization.In his first speech to Congress, Lopez Obrador pledged "a peaceful and orderly transition, but one that is deep and radical ... because we will end the corruption and impunity that prevent Mexico's rebirth."Mexico long had a closed, state-dominated economy, but since entering the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs in 1986, it has signed more free trade agreements than almost any other country, and privatized almost every corner of the economy except oil and electricity.Now, though, Lopez Obrador talks a talk not heard in Mexico since the 1960s: He wants to build more state-owned oil refineries and encourages Mexicans to "not to buy abroad, but to produce in Mexico what we consume."Even so, Lopez Obrador has tried to send conciliatory gestures to financial markets, which have been roiled in the weeks before he took office."I promise, and I'm a man of my word, that the investments of foreign and international investors will be safe, and we will even create conditions that will allow them to get good returns," he said, "because in Mexico there will be honesty, rule of law, clear rules, economic growth and confidence."But he also harkened back to his hero, President Lazaro Cardenas, who nationalized the oil industry and redistributed land during his 1934-40 administration."We are going to govern for everyone, but we are going to give preference to the most impoverished and vulnerable," Lopez Obrador said. "For the good of all, the poor come first.'"The first foreign dignitaries that Lopez Obrador greeted were U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump."I want to say that since July 1, the day I was elected, I have received respectful treatment from President Donald Trump", Lopez Obrador said.But he faces a challenge with a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants camped out on the border, which Trump had threatened to close to keep them out.Lopez Obrador said he wanted to reach an agreement with the governments and companies in the U.S. and Canada to develop Central America and southern Mexico, so people wouldn't have to migrate - "to address in that way, and not with coercive measures, the migration phenomenon."That appeared to be an acknowledgment that Mexico is prepared to house migrants waiting to make asylum claims in the United States in exchange for U.S. development aid."The only person he (Lopez Obrador) can't afford to get in a fight with is Trump, because he knows he could derail his plan," said author and columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio. "He is willing to do the dirty work for them."Lopez Obrador was clear in blaming extreme market-oriented policies he calls neoliberalism for Mexico's problems."Mexico's crisis originated not only with the failure of the neoliberal policies applied over the last 36 years," he said in his inaugural speech, "but also in the prevalence of the filthiest corruption."Mexico's richest man, telecom magnate Carlos Slim, appeared to welcome the new president's pledge to rein in wasteful spending and fight corruption, saying: "Everybody wants spending to be efficiently managed."The rowdiest response from Congress came when Lopez Obrador pledged "not to persecute officials of past administrations," saying "revenge is not my strong suit."Legislators responded by counting loudly to 43 - the number of students kidnapped and disappeared in September 2014 - to remind Lopez Obrador of his promise to establish a truth commission to find out what happened to the students. He repeated that pledge Saturday. Prosecutors have said the students were kidnapped by corrupt police and turned over to a drug gang that killed them and burned their bodies.Lopez Obrador pledged to personally oversee daily 6 a.m. security briefings to confront the rising tide of violence in Mexico, and pledged to ban both oil and gas fracking and genetically modified crops.Combined with a deep sense of nationalism and his own place in history, Lopez Obrador's inauguration is the most home-grown, populist handover of power in decades.He was formally anointed leader by indigenous groups at a ceremony later in the day at Mexico City's main square. Mexico has more than 70 indigenous communities, and Lopez Obrador has pledged to end centuries of poverty and marginalization for them.Traditional healers brushed Lopez Obrador with bunches of herbs and blew incense smoke over him to purify him. They then invoked the spirits of their ancestors and the land to liberate him from any bad influences, turning to the four cardinal points with individual prayers.Activist Carmen Santiago Alonso then handed him a ceremonial wooden staff denoting leadership. It was the first time a Mexican president had ever taken part in this kind of ceremonial inauguration by indigenous groups."What we want, what we desire is to purify public life in Mexico," Lopez Obrador said. "I repeat my commitment: I will not lie, I will not steal or betray the people of Mexico."The country's 65-year-old new leader is moving the presidential office fully back to the centuries-old National Palace that lines one side of the square, while refusing to live at the luxurious, heavily guarded presidential residence 6 miles (9 kilometers) to the west. He will reside instead at his private home.Closed to the public since the first parts were built in the 1930s, the compound will now be used for public events and it was thrown open to the public Saturday.Gabriela Barrientos, a retired secretary, and Jesus Basilio, a market vendor, were among the first to line up at the gate to enter what Basilio called "the house of the people, an emblematic place we will be able to enter for the first time."Yaneth Fierro, a housewife from Acapulco, expressed amazement at the luxury of the compound - there was a small cinema in the basement of one building - but disappointment at completely emptied rooms. "We wanted to see the furniture, but the 'Gaviota' (the nickname of former first lady Angelica Rivera) took them all."The handover of power began at midnight when new Cabinet secretaries were sworn in for key security posts - a tradition meant to ensure there's always someone at the helm of the army, navy and Interior Department, the country's top domestic security agency.New Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said in a post-midnight ceremony that the new government will "listen to everybody, the majority and the minorities, because in a democracy all opinions can be expressed."Lopez Obrador gained prominence as a leftist politician leading protests against oil pollution in his swampy native state of Tabasco, though he hasn't given any indication that he will cancel private oil exploration contracts or pull out of Mexico's free trade agreements with 44 countries.Lopez Obrador won a crushing victory in the July 1 elections after two previous, unsuccessful runs for the presidency and he is the country's first president since the Mexican Revolution to rise to prominence as a protest leader. He sees his inauguration as a historic "fourth transformation" of Mexico, following independence from Spain, the liberal reforms that broke the church's dominance in the 1850s and the 1910-1917 revolution.Lopez Obrador's predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, leaves office with a historically low approval rating, which in several polls ranged from 20 percent to 24 percent. Pena Nieto failed to rein in Mexico's rising homicide rate or deal with thousands of Central American migrants camped out on the border, leaving both intractable issues as the biggest immediate challenges facing Lopez Obrador.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responds with a letter to the U.S. president stating he wants to avoid a confrontation, saying that ideals such as justice and universal brotherhood are more important than borders. He also ordered his foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday.