With tensions mounting following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to start building a large border wall between the U.S. and Mexico “in months,” another president has reached out to Mexico with an alternative.
Bolivian President Evo Morales (Aymara) used Trump’s favorite form of communication to urge Mexico to “look to the south” for other possibilities.
On January 26, Morales sent a tweet directed at Mexicans.
“I am calling on our Mexican brothers to look more to the south; to build unity together in our Latin American and Caribbean identity.”
Morales sent the message the same week that Trump issued his border wall executive order.
The hemisphere’s only indigenous head of state also reacted to Trump’s order for the border wall.
“To the north they build walls against Latinos, but it doesn’t stop their interventions nor military bases throughout the world. A life of injustice from racism and fascism,” Morales Tweeted on January 31.
Morales’ messages were sent just before and after the meeting between Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and U.S. President Trump was canceled.
While Morales did not specify increasing trade or other agreements between Mexico and Bolivia or Latin America in general, his country is part of a growing alliance of Latin American nations.
Bolivia is part of UNASUR, an intergovernmental body and trading bloc of Latin American nations that includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Trade between Mexico and UNASUR countries is extensive, including commerce with Bolivia.
Bolivia’s major exports include natural gas, silver, zinc, soybeans and related products. While Mexico is not on the list of Bolivia’s top countries that receive its exports, it is on the list of top import countries: Bolivia already imports over $270 million worth of products from Mexico.
Conversely, the only major trading partner for Mexico from UNASUR is Brazil, to which it exports over $3.7 billion in products and imports over $4.6 billion worth of materials.
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