Mexicans want their president to cancel Washington visit after Trump touts his wall

MEXICO CITY -- As Mexico's foreign minister was flying toward Washington on Tuesday for his first visit with the new administration, news broke that President Donald Trump, the very next day, planned to order construction of a giant wall across the Mexican border.

The outrage in Mexico was swift and emphatic. Trump's wall project has been widely condemned here since he announced it during his campaign. But many saw the timing of Trump's presidential action as an added insult -- with top Mexican officials in town and with President Enrique Peña Nieto scheduled to visit next week.

Former officials and top Mexican politicians across the political spectrum demanded that Peña Nieto cancel his visit with Trump after what many considered a slap in the face. Mexican news media was reporting Wednesday afternoon that Peña Nieto would indeed cancel, but spokesmen for the president's office and the foreign ministry would not immediately confirm that.

"The welcome that the Mexican government envoys are receiving is slamming in the door on their noses," Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a former presidential candidate, said in a statement. "It seems to me that the least that could be done in these conditions is to not attend, to cancel the visit to the United States as a matter of dignity for Mexico."

Former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda said in an interview that if Peña Nieto doesn't cancel the meeting, "he runs a risk of having a new slap in the face, or being under such enormous pressure from public opinion in Mexico to stand up to Trump after today's insults, that he's going to have to be unpleasant and he's going to have to be macho and he's going to have to be strident."

"And first of all he doesn't know how to do any of that," Castañeda added. "He's just not very good at it. And second of all, that's not conducive to a productive visit."

Without the full State Department structure in place, Castañeda added, Peña Nieto would have been "doing it without a net. It was precipitated. It was premature."

Margarita Zavala, a likely presidential candidate and the wife of former President Felipe Calderon, wrote on Twitter that Trump's announcement was an "offense to Mexico."

Foreign minister Luis Videgaray, who was recently appointed in part because of his relationship with Trump's team and his skills as a negotiator, was still in Washington on Wednesday, Mexican officials said. But it was unclear if he planned to stay.

"Given the announcement about the wall, the visit of [Videgaray] today only makes sense as a way to announce that there will be no meeting" between Peña Nieto and Trump on Jan. 31, wrote Roberto Gil Zuarth, a Mexican senator from the National Action Party, on Twitter.

Another senator from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, described Trump's announcement as an "act of hostility and emnity" and that Peña Nieto should call off his trip.