Mexico’s finance secretary resigns after Trump visit
MEXICO CITY — One of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s closest advisers and confidants, Finance Secretary Luis Videgaray, resigned Wednesday in a move seen as linked to the unpopular decision to invite Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to visit Mexico.
Pena Nieto has taken responsibility for inviting Trump, but a former government official familiar with the workings of the administration said Videgaray would have played a preponderant role in the decision. Newspaper columnists in Mexico have reported Videgaray was behind last week’s visit, after which Pena Nieto was criticized for not being forceful enough in rejecting Trump’s proposals and comments about Mexico.
Videgaray “was the architect” of Trump’s visit, because he was the adviser that Pena Nieto had “the most reliance on, and was closest to,” said columnist and political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio.
Even Trump himself said Videgaray’s resignation was related to his visit. Trump told a televised U.S. national security forum Wednesday night that “the people that arranged the trip in Mexico have been forced out of government. That’s how well we did.”