President Enrique Peña Nieto's non-confrontational tone in a January phone call with President Donald Trump came under fire in Mexico from both the left and right, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I would also like to make you understand, President Trump, the lack of margin I have as president of Mexico to accept this situation," Peña Nieto politely told Trump about his signature campaign vow to build a wall — and make Mexico pay for it.
His attitude is being hotly debated after a leaked transcript of the conversation was posted Thursday, the Times reported.
"Mexicans must know if our president will follow the orders of a foreigner who hates us, or if he will safeguard the autonomy of the Mexican government that he represents," Jorge Lopez Martin, a spokesman for the right-leaning National Action Party, told Mexico's Reforma newspaper — charging Peña Nieto came off as "submissive and complacent," the Times reported.
Agustin Basave, a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, vented on Twitter.
"Where is the defense of our sovereignty?" Agustin Basave, a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, tweeted. "Trump offered to send troops into Mexico because ours 'are afraid' of narcos, and Peña remained silent."
The Mexican government had initially denied reports that Trump suggested sending American troops to Mexico to fight “bad hombres," the Times noted.
Others are defending the Mexican leader.
"He was very courage to publicly defy what the president of the U.S. told him to do," Genaro Lozano, a professor of political science and international relations at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City, told the Times about Trump's repeated demands that Peña Nieto stop public denials that Mexico would pay for the wall.
"He treated a bully the way a bully should be treated, by ignoring what the bully demanded."
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