EN
8 September 2016 - 06:29 AMT

Mexican Finance Minister resigns over Trump visit

Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray has resigned following the visit of Donald Trump last week, BBC News reports.

Videgaray was seen as the main organiser of the controversial meeting between Trump and President Enrique Pena Nieto. The visit was widely criticised by Mexicans both in the national press and on social media.

A spokesperson for the ministry said Videgaray would not take on another public office.

He will be replaced by the current Minister of Social Development, Jose Antonio Meade. Meade previously held the finance portfolio in 2011 and 2012.

Trump, the Republican nominee for the US presidency, visited Mexico briefly on 1 September, despite widespread condemnation of some of his earlier comments about Mexican migrants to the United States.

He had called Mexican migrants "criminals" and "rapists". Such remarks led President Pena Nieto to compare the American to Italian fascist leader Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.

Videgaray has been one of the president's closest advisers, orchestrating a successful election campaign in 2012.

However, Trump's visit almost immediately caused public relations problems, when he appeared later that day at a rally in Arizona.

There, he told the crowd Mexico would "100%" pay for a planned border wall, though he told reporters he had not discussed the issue with President Pena Nieto.

The president later insisted he had told Trump that Mexico would not pay.

In 2014, Videgaray came under fire when a newspaper investigation revealed he had bought his home from a construction firm whose parent company had won major public contracts.

He denied any wrongdoing or conflict of interest.

President Pena Nieto said the new minister will "apply adjustments to public spending" but there will not be any rise in taxes.