Mexican president: Border wall ‘against our dignity’

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this week rebuffed President-elect Donald Trump’s push for Mexico to pay for a massive border wall, saying the plan goes “against our dignity as a country,” the Guardian reported.

Speaking to a group of Mexican diplomats, Peña Nieto outlined his country’s efforts to sign an updated free-trade agreement with the European Union, as tensions grow between the U.S. and Mexico in the wake of Trump’s election.

“It is evident that we have differences with the new United States government on some issues, such as a wall that Mexico absolutely will not pay for,” Peña Nieto said. “At no time will we accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans.”

{mosads}He also said basic principles that have defined the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. — such as “security, immigration and commerce” — would be called into question.

“Basic principles such as sovereignty, the national interest and the protection of our citizens are non-negotiable,” he said.

Trump has struck a hardline tone on Mexico since his first day as a presidential candidate, when he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals,” and promised to make Mexico pay for the U.S. to build a wall along its southern border. Mexican politicians have rejected that claim, dismissing it as empty rhetoric.

Tensions have also heated up amid Trump’s efforts to prevent U.S. companies, such as Carrier and Ford, from moving manufacturing facilities to Mexico. The president-elect has also vowed to impose heavy tariffs on Mexican exports.

Those promises have called Mexico’s economic future in question, causing the value of the peso to fall to record-breaking lows.