Donald Trump to Visit Mexico, Meet President
CLARISSA WARD, CNN HOST: Tonight, he's promised to build walls, but is Donald Trump now trying to build bridges? My interview with Mexico's former foreign minister Jorge Castaneda as Trump heads to the country for surprise talks with the Mexican president. Plus, the trials and struggles of London's illegal immigrants. We shine a light on the light in the shadows. And the dramatic decline of the African elephant, renowned naturalist David Attenborough on what their extinction could mean for future generations.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a crime. And a crime that if it happens, will rest heavily on humanity's shoulders.</s>WARD: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Clarissa Ward in for Christiane Amanpour. Donald Trump is on his way to a country he has insulted for over a year to meet with a world leader who likened him to Hitler. Yes, it's hard to believe, but the controversial candidate for U.S. president is on a hastily arranged trip to Mexico, where he'll sit down with its President Enrique Pena Nieto. A puzzling move on all sides, to be sure, given all Trump has said about America's neighbor to the south. Here's a quick reminder.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some I assume are good people. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.</s>WARD: Let's go straight to Mexico City. Jorge Castaneda is Mexico's former foreign minister. He joins me now.</s>WARD: Thank you so much for being with us on the program. Help us explain what's going on here. Why did President Nieto extend this invitation?</s>JORGE CASTANEDA, MEXICO'S FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, quite honestly, Clarissa, and thank you for having me. Quite honestly, I can't understand it either. It seems incomprehensible and many people in Mexico since late last night are sort of scratching their head and closing their eyes and saying, what in the world is going on here? Why would President Pena Nieto invite Donald Trump? Because he also invited Hillary Clinton. But she has not said yes or no, and is certainly not coming in the next two or three days. Why would he invite someone who as you said has insulted Mexicans? Mexicans in Mexico and Mexicans in the United States for over a year now almost every day. Why does Pena Nieto invite someone who is lagging in the polls to such an extent that it seems very far-fetched that he could actually win the election? And why is he inviting someone who obviously is using this visit to Mexico as a political ploy, as an electoral ploy in the United States. At the end of the day, Donald Trump is using Enrique Pena Nieto as an instrument of his campaign in the United States. It really is quite incomprehensible. And I think we could at least say that Mexicans are very perplexed about what in the world is going on here. I agree with you completely.</s>WARD: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. I mean, how do Mexican people feel? Their President Pena Nieto extending this invitation to a man who has been insulting, to say the least, about the Mexican people. Is there a sense of anger on the streets that this invitation was ever extended?</s>CASTANEDA: Well, on the streets, I wouldn't know quite yet, although there have been calls for demonstrations along the road. He would probably have to take either from the airport to the official residence or near the American embassy. But in the social media in Mexico, Clarissa, there is outrage, not anger, it's outrage. And also an enormous amount of sarcasm and irony. President Pena Nieto has been accused of plagiarism a few days ago, and so some people are saying on Twitter, well, perhaps that will be their main topic of conversation, Trump's wife's plagiarism of Michelle Obama and President Pena Nieto's plagiarism of his dissertation when he graduated and got his law degree. But more seriously, there is this sense that this is something that President Pena Nieto is doing out of political desperation because he is collapsing in the polls in Mexico. He has an important state of the union message tomorrow, which nobody knows what he will tell us about the state of our union, which is a pretty terrible state. And so perhaps he was thinking that he could get Trump and Hillary Clinton down here on the same day or same couple of days, and then Trump took him at his word, used the trip to Mexico to then schedule, reschedule his speech on immigration for Arizona tonight. So he comes to Mexico City, sees the president, then goes to Arizona, makes his speech and practically will say, I spoke to the president of Mexico this morning, and I told him all of this, and he more or less agreed with me. It's an incredible use of someone else, very skilful, I must say, on Trump's part and rather incomprehensible on President Pena Nieto's part because there was no need to do this. There is no tradition in Mexico, Clarissa, of American candidates coming to Mexico during the campaign. That is hardly done. They can do it during the primary campaign. You recall President Obama, then Barack Obama's visit to Europe in 2008 during the primaries campaign, but the strictly presidential campaign, there is no precedent for an American mainstream candidate coming to Mexico during the campaign proper.</s>WARD: And as you said, I mean, it certainly does give Donald Trump a veneer of being a statesman to be able to come to his speech tonight and say I just spoke with President Pena Nieto. But I wanted to ask you this, the Mexican people obviously are not necessarily big fans of Donald Trump. But do you think there is something that Trump could say today that would soften his image in Mexico, that would undo some of the damage that this devisive rhetoric we have seen from him has done?</s>CASTANEDA: I don't think so, Clarisse, for a very simple reason. Recent polls just two weeks ago in the country's main newspaper had Donald Trump being disapproved of or disliked by 90 percent of those who were interviewed. He has insulted Mexicans every single day for more than a year now. And all of this has come back to Mexico. This is transmitted by CNN, of course, but many other networks in Mexico throughout the country. And Mexicans -- all those Mexicans, 12 million Mexicans in the United States call home, write home, text home, whatever you like, and tell their families in Mexico, did you hear what this guy said about us yesterday? That we're a bunch of rapists. So the Mexican people, by far, overwhelmingly, detest Donald Trump. I see nothing he could say here, except a full-fledged public apology. I apologize for what I've said about Mexicans the last year. I apologize for what I said about deportations. I apologize about what I said about the wall, about you guys paying for the wall; forget the wall, forget about paying for it, forget about deportations, forget about reviewing NAFTA. All of a sudden I've seen the light, and I agree. I don't think that's going to happen, Clarissa, quite honestly. You never know. In Mexico, you know, we believe in miracles, but I sort of find it difficult to believe that that could happen.</s>WARD: Indeed. I wouldn't hold your breath. Jorge Castaneda, thank you so much for joining us on the program.</s>WARD: Well, Mexico has played host to many momentous political movements, including in 1955, a young Cuban revolutionary named Fidel Castro, who would meet Che Guevara in Mexico City and embark upon his overthrow of the Cuban Dictator Batista by launching a boat from the Mexican coast. Earlier today, another historic arrival in Cuba marked a new era in Cuban American relations. As for the first time, a U.S. airline operated a direct flight to the island, flying just one hour from Florida. And when we come back, a grounds eye view of immigration right here in the heart of London.