Mexico wonders why its president is meeting with Trump

President Enrique Pena Nieto awoke to a storm of criticism from Mexicans over his decision to meet with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is widely reviled in Mexico for referring to its migrants as rapists and criminals.
Blogger Diego Garcia stood with a handful of protesters at Mexico City's Independence Monument, wearing a green professional wrestler's mask and holding aloft a sign reading "Stop Trump's Insults!"
"This man has called Mexicans a burden on society, so for the president to invite him here in a friendly way, and what's worse, to meet with him in private, well I consider that an insult," said Garcia.

Artist Arturo Meade stood nearby with his two-and-a-half-year old son Mariano and shook his head in disgust.
"This is an insult and a betrayal," Meade said. "What can this meeting bring us, except surrealism in all its splendor?" Former President Vicente Fox told local media that Trump was trying to boost his sagging campaign. "He fooled him (Pena Nieto) ... He's using him to try to recover lost votes."
Former first lady Margarita Zavala, wife of ex-president Felipe Calderon and herself a potential presidential candidate, aimed a tweet at Trump, saying: "Even though you may have been invited, we want you to know you're not welcome. We Mexicans have dignity, and we reject your hate speech."

Leading historian Enrique Krauze also addressed a tweet to Trump in English: "Listen ... We Mexicans expect nothing less than an apology for calling us 'criminals and rapists.'"

He compared Pena Nieto's meeting with Trump to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signing of a 1938 peace pact with Germany. "Tyrants are to be confronted, not pacified," Krauze told the Televisa TV network.
Even Pena Nieto has made such such comparisons. Asked about Trump in March, Pena Nieto complained to the Excelsior newspaper about "these strident expressions that seek to propose very simple solutions." He said that sort of language has led to "very fateful scenes in the history of humanity."

"That's the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived," Pena Nieto said.
Many Mexicans felt the Republican candidate had left Pena Nieto flat-footed by accepting an invitation the Mexican president had made simply for appearances' sake.