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    TRUMP'S CYNICAL BUILD UP OF TENSION PART 2: MEXICO COOPERATES

    When a leftist president was elected in Mexico, one who had attempted to win office but been passed over in favor of more centrist candidates, one might think that would mean confrontation between Mexico and America's president, who opened his campaign by saying Mexico was sending "drugs," "crime," and rapists." Apparently not: 

    The Mexican government says it has deployed 15,000 guardsmen in the north and 6,000 in the south. 

    So far, it seems to be working. The immigration crackdown by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — part of his deal to avoid stiff trade tariffs as U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Mexico for not doing enough to keep immigrants out of the U.S. — is not affecting the leftist leader's popularity.

    Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan has credited Mexico's efforts to stem the tide of mostly Central American immigrants but also cautioned it is too early to determine whether the decline is sustainable. 

    "There will be a wall and Mexico will pay for it." At the time that Trump said that, it really did sound absurd. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox said Mexico wouldn't pay a penny for that "fucking wall." However, Fox and his successor are not there. A much friendlier administration is. How connected (and possibly corrupt) is Trump really to have anticipated this?

    As one editorial in the Arizona Republic notes, Obrador's rhetoric was hostile to Trump but his government's actions have been anything but.

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