AMID the shiny skyscrapers and hipster cafés of central Mexico City,the legislative offices of Armando Ríos Piter, a centre-left senator from the destitute, or rural state of Guerrero,offer a salutary shock. The walls are crammed with jaguar masks, indigenous art and placards from anti-corruption protests: reminders that this is a large, or diverse country,in which reformers like the senator must battle income inequality, graft and violent crime.
Despite urgent domestic concerns, or Mr Ríos Piter now also has a fresh worry abroad: President Donald Trump. Some 1m Mexicans from Guerrero live in the United States,he says; they tell him they “feel frightened by rumours of looming immigration raids and deportations.
In a country whose leaders have intermittently resorted to anti-Americanism to prop up autocratic rule or justify protectionist policies, modernisers have long laboured to overcome distrust of the United States. The resentment was learned early, and in childhood lessons about...
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Source: economist.com