Tens of thousands of Mexicans protested Sunday against US President Donald Trump, hitting back at his anti-Mexican rhetoric and his pledges to make their country pay for his "big, beautiful" border wall. "Mexico must be respected, Mr Trump," said a giant banner carried by protesters in Mexico City, who waved a sea of red, white and green Mexican flags as they marched down the capital's main avenue under the watchful eyes of thousands of police.
Protester Julieta Rosas was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Trump sporting an Adolf Hitler mustache. "We're here to make Trump see and feel that an entire country, united, is rising up against him and his xenophobic, discriminatory and fascist stupidity," said Rosas, a literature student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In what looked set to be Mexico's biggest anti-Trump protest yet, some 20 cities joined the call to march made by a group of dozens of universities, business associations and civic organisations.
There were 20,000 demonstrators in Mexico City, according to local authorities. Marches in Guadalajara, Monterrey and Morelia also drew thousands of people - though a planned protest in the border city of Tijuana fell flat. US-Mexican relations have plunged to their lowest point in decades since Trump took office on January 20. Trump, who launched his presidential campaign calling Mexican immigrants "criminals" and "rapists," has infuriated the United States' southern neighbour with his plan to stop illegal migration by building a wall on the border.
AFP text, photos, graphics and logos shall not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP shall not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP content, or for any actions taken in consequence.
Business Recorder shall not be responsible or held liable for any error of fact, opinion or recommendation and also for any loss, financial or otherwise, resulting from business or trade or speculation conducted, or investments made, on the basis of the information posted here. Nor shall Business Recorder be held liable for any actions taken in consequence." >Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017