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Mexicans Launch Boycotts of U.S. Companies in Fury at Donald Trump

5 minute read

The digital image shows a clenched fist bathed in the red, white and green of Mexico’s flag and decorated with the nation’s emblematic eagle. “Consumers, to the Shout of War,” it says in Spanish above the fist. “Consume products made in country…Use your buying power to punish the companies that favor the politics of the new U.S. government.”

Created by a Mexican food-activist group, the image is part of a slew of messages, memes and videos that have been spreading in Mexico in recent days as President Donald Trump pushes for a border wall, deportations and punishing new trade rules. Others messages call for specific boycotts of U.S. companies in Mexico, including McDonalds, Walmart and Coca-Cola. One of the most heavily trending hashtags is #AdiosStarbucks, or “Goodbye Starbucks,” referring to the Seattle company which has opened hundreds of coffee houses here.

The boycotts illustrate the defiant mood brewing in Mexico in reaction to Trump’s tumultuous first week in the White House. President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a bilateral meeting in Washington on Thursday after Trump insisted Mexico should pay for the border wall. The Mexican government and leading business lobbies have said the country should pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, rather than accept a bad rewrite. And opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called for a lawsuit in the United Nations against the planned border wall.

If a trade war is brewing, it will not be fought on a level playing ground. Mexico has an economy that is only the tenth of the size of its northern neighbor and U.S. import tariffs and the deportation of millions of migrants could push it into recession. But however daunting the Trump White House is, Mexico looks like it won’t go down without a fight.

“We need to stand up to Trump’s threats and his economic war,” says Enzzo Omar Sosa, part of a collective called Mexicanos Al Grito de Guerra, or “Mexicans to the Shout of War.” The group has social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, in which it has been heralding the cries to boycott U.S. companies. “We need to support Mexican companies, which provide jobs and maintain our macro economy,” he said. Hitting U.S. companies could also make them pressure President Trump over his aggressive positions against Mexico, he said.

One Photographer Traveled the Full Length of the U.S. Border With Mexico

Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A U.S. Border Patrol agent removes a ladder used by undocumented immigrants to climb a border fence on Oct. 18, 2016 near McAllen, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents fly near the U.S.-Mexico border while on helicopter patrol on Oct. 18, 2016 near McAllen, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A U.S. Border Patrol agent detains a group of undocumented immigrants on Oct. 18, 2016 near McAllen, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
People stand in line to cross legally into the United States from Mexico on Sept. 24, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico.John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
The Rio Grande forms a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 15, 2016 in the Big Bend region of West Texas near Lajitas, Texas. Big Bend is a rugged, vast and remote region along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes the Big Bend National Park.John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
U.S. Border Patrol agents with a K-9 unit detain undocumented immigrants after they illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 18, 2016, in McAllen, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
This photo made with a smart phone through night vision goggles shows the Rio Grande flowing along the U.S.-Mexico border, as seen from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter during a patrol over the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 18, 2016 in McAllen, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
The moon rises over the swirling current of the Rio Grande on Oct. 15, 2016 in the Big Bend region of West Texas near Lajitas, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A bullet-proof shield stands to aid U.S. Border Patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 3, 2016 in El Paso, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A child plays in the Pacific surf near the U.S.-Mexico border fence on Sept. 25, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. The nearby Friendship Park is one of the few places on the 2,000-mile border where separated families are allowed to meet. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Dunes stretch into the distance near the U.S.-Mexico border on Sept. 27, 2016 in the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area, California. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Mexican farm workers hoe a cabbage field on Sept. 27, 2016, in Holtville, Calif. Thousands of Mexican seasonal workers legally cross over daily from Mexicali, Mexico to work the fields of Imperial Valley, Calif., which is some of the most productive farmland in the United States. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A man looks through the U.S.-Mexico border fence into the United States on Septt. 25, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
A Studebaker sits outside a cotton field near the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 14, 2016 near Fort Hancock, Texas. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Bodies of suspected undocumented immigrants lie in the morgue at the Office of the Pima County Medical Examiner on Sept. 29, 2016 in Tucson, Ariz. Hundreds of migrants die every year in the desert while crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States. John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Personal effects found on the body of a suspected undocumented immigrant are stored at the Office of the Pima County Medical Examiner on Sept. 29, 2016 in Tucson, Ariz.John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Dinner tables await immigrants, many of them deportees from the United States, at the Casa del Migrante Sept. 23, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. The shelter, run by Catholic priests, is part of the Coalicion Pro Defensa, which aids immigrants and asylum applicants seeking entry into the United States. The coalition of immigrant advocates has helped thousands of migrants on their journey north and many more after being being deported from the United States.John Moore—Getty Images
Immigration And Border Security Issues Loom Heavy In Upcoming U.S. Elections
Mexicans enjoy a late afternoon near the U.S.-Mexico border fence, which ends in the Pacific Ocean, on Sept. 25, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. Friendship Park, located on the border between the two countries is one of the few places on the 2,000-mile border where separated families are allowed to meet. John Moore—Getty Images

It is as yet uncertain how much boycotts will affect the bottom line of U.S. businesses here, but they have gained prominence since Trump signed the executive order for the border wall on Wednesday. A shift manager at a Starbucks in the middle-class Roma neighborhood of Mexico City said Thursday he had already seen a slump of about 10 percent in customers at that particular outlet. “It’s bad because this is a franchise and it affects the jobs of Mexican workers,” said the manager, who asked his name not be used as he was not an authorized spokesman. Starbucks has not voiced any political support for Trump, and was itself the subject of a protest by Trump supporters in December.

There have also been several demonstrations against Trump outside the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, where protesters have burned piñatas of the president. Protester Maria Garcia, of the Bi-National Coalition Against Trump, said the insistence that Mexico pays for the wall is the main contention. “They can build what they want in their territory. But pay for it themselves. The demand we pay for it is a weapon to beat us into submission. It is blackmail.”

The White House has sent mixed messages on how it will actually get Mexico to foot the bill for a wall that could cost up to $15 billion. Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday floated the idea of a 20% tax on Mexican imports, but then later said that was just “one idea.” During the campaign, Trump discussed a wall tax on the $25 billion in remittances sent home by Mexican migrants working in the United States every year. Either of those would, if enacted, have a catastrophic impact on Mexico’s economy.

These positions and others have made Trump a despised figure in Mexico, with a poll in September finding fewer than 3% here had a positive opinion of him. Yet President Enrique Peña Nieto does not fare much better among his own people. A recent Reforma poll found his approval rating had plunged to 12 percent, the lowest among a Mexican president in recent history. Corruption scandals, violent crime and rising prices have all paid their toll on him.

Diverting the anger to a foreign figure could provide Peña Nieto with some relief. But politics expert Maria Eugenia Valdez thinks he has failed to capitalize on it. “He has taken all the wrong steps. He should never have planned to meet Trump so early in his presidency. He is not offering a convincing leadership,” she said. Valdez thinks that the Mexico–U.S. relationship is likely headed for disaster, whatever people do. “NAFTA is already dead,” she said. “It is like a marriage is breaking up. But it is not going to be an easy divorce.”

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