[LINK] The National Post on the Mexican reaction to the election of Donald Trump

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post shared Nacha Cattan and Eric Martin's Washington Post article looking at the general reaction in Mexico to Donald Trump's election. I wouldn't be surprised if this ended North American regionalism.

Mexicans watched their televisions in horror as Donald Trump was victorious over Hillary Clinton in the U.S. election, putting into power a man who stirred resentment of them and their relatives in the U.S. and promised to build a wall between the nations after almost a century of peace.

“The world has gone crazy,” said Alessandro Mendoza, watching the results on two giant screens at a packed gathering of Mexican and American businessmen at the American Society. As Trump’s lead mounted, the 29-year-old lawyer from Mexico City, who has cousins in Miami, put his hand to his mouth in surprise and whispered to his friend, “we’re screwed.”

The country has been gripped for months by the election campaign, culminating with a tense night that Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz monitored from offices resembling a war room. Thousands of the capital’s residents had planned to celebrate a Trump defeat at the Angel of Independence in the city center, where soccer fans party after the national team wins. But as the final results came in, the Paseo de la Reforma thoroughfare that runs past the monument was eerily silent.

“Americans have disappointed me,” said Jose Enrique Guillen, a 28-year-old sociology student at the Pinche Gringo bar in the capital. “I feel the hatred. I’m sad and worried.”

From the moment Trump began his campaign by calling undocumented Mexican immigrants “rapists,” the Republican used Mexico as a whipping boy to drive home his concerns about free trade and undocumented workers. Now, after months of beating Trump piñatas, burning his effigies and donning wigs to satirize him in theaters, Mexicans are facing a bleak reality that could damage the nation’s economy and throw the lives of millions of migrants into chaos.