Mexico taking steps to counter 'Trump emergency'

MEXICO CITY - Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, was recently stuck in Mexico City traffic, overcome with frustration - not by the congestion, but by something that was irritating him even more: Donald Trump. He grabbed his phone, turned the lens on himself and pressed record.

"Ha! Donald," Fox said, holding the phone perhaps a little too close to his face. "What about your apologies to Mexico, to Mexicans in the United States, to Mexicans in Mexico?"

In short order, the 15-second clip was on Fox's Twitter feed - another salvo in a personal campaign against Trump that has included TV appearances, radio interviews and a fusillade of hectoring Twitter posts.

Fox's voice is among a growing, if uncoordinated, chorus of influential Mexicans worried about what a Trump victory could mean for the complex relationship between the U.S. and Mexico - not to mention the effect Trump's bid may have already had.

The voices have included at least two former Mexican presidents, top government officials, political analysts, academics, editorial writers and cultural figures.

President Enrique Peña Nieto likened the candidate's language to that of Hitler and Mussolini in an interview with Mexico's Excelsior newspaper. And he recently shuffled his diplomatic corps in the United States, replacing Mexico's ambassador to Washington and installing new consuls general around the country, in part to strengthen his administration's response to the rise of Trump and what it reflects about U.S. sentiment toward Mexico.

"His threat is cataclysmic, I think, for Mexico," Enrique Krauze, a Mexican historian and literary magazine editor, said in an interview. "What it would mean for bilateral trade, in social terms, in the tearing of families, in the trauma, the collective panic, the opening of old wounds."

He added: "I can use one of Trump's favorite words. Yes, this is huge. It's a huge danger."

Mexican critics of Trump say he has already damaged the image of their country and of the Mexican people with his espousal of views that many regard as xenophobic. At a rally to kick off his campaign in June, the Republican candidate suggested that many Mexican immigrants were drug traffickers and rapists.

Mexican officials, concerned about negative impressions of Mexico in the United States, have been rolling out a strategy to improve the image of their country and show how the relationship between the two nations has been of "mutual benefit," said Paulo Carreño, the newly appointed undersecretary for North America in Mexico's Foreign Ministry.

The strategy includes "cultural diplomacy," grass-roots activism and the deployment of Mexican community and business leaders living in the United States, he said.

In general, however, the administration has mostly refrained from commenting on the candidate.

That has frustrated many Mexicans, who have called on the government to come to the defense of Mexico and push back at Trump more forcefully.

"They can package that in the traditional Mexican nonsense: We don't interfere in elections," said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign minister. "The real reason is that they have no idea what to do, so the default option is to do nothing."