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Payback Time, Mexican Style: Donald Trump’s Effigies Burnt During Easter Celebrations In Mexico

By Mohit Priyadarshi
Published on: 02:31 PST, Mar 27, 2016

Donald Trump is certainly not a popular figure in Mexico, and one does not need to be a genius to figure out why.

So it was not altogether surprising when thousands of Mexicans turned up with fireworks-stuffed effigies of the Republican front-runner during Easter “burning of Judas” festivities and burned them to the ground, according to Mediaite.

Effigies of Trump were reportedly set on fire across the country, reports Sky News, with hundreds of people taking to the streets and yelling “death” and various other insults as they watched stuffed Trump figurines burnt to the ground in the Mexican cities of Mexico City, Puebla, and Monterrey.

The Trump effigies were produced by traditional artisan families in Mexico who have, for decades, made Judas effigies to be burnt during the Mexican Holy Week. Felipe Linares, one of the artists who made a plumped up Trump effigy which was set on fire in Mexico City’s La Merced district, said making and burning the effigy was a way for him and other Mexicans to get back at Trump after his now infamous comments about the country and its people.

“Since he started his campaign and began talking about immigrants, Mexico, and Mexicans, I said ‘I’ve got to get this guy.’ “

Trump is not particularly liked in Mexico after his presidential campaign has repeatedly sought to paint Mexicans as “rapists” and “criminals,” with the real estate mogul rarely shying away from saying so during his rallies in the southern states. In fact, one of Trump’s campaign pledges has been about building a wall at the Mexican border and making the Mexican government pay for it, an almost absurd claim which has obviously not only not gone down well with the Mexicans, but has invited ridicule for Donald Trump from major sections of the media.

Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto has also decried the idea, and has even gone on to compare Donald Trump’s “strident tone” to dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

In a country where the frank expression of political opinions is not always considered safe, the Mexican people’s comparison of Judas Iscariot – who the Bible says betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and subsequently hanged himself — to Donald Trump comes as an almost spontaneous outpouring of anger at the way the Republican front-runner has designed his campaign.

Observers point out the Mexicans’ response to Trump’s comments is a result of his sustained attack on Mexico. Ilán Semo, a political historian at the Iberoamerican University, said that this was the first time in many years that somebody had launched into such a sustained anti-Mexico tirade, according to the Guardian.

“People have come to attack Mexico, [but] it’s the first time someone outside the country has launched an anti-Mexico campaign, culturally speaking.”

It would also not be completely surprising if Donald Trump has a response up his sleeve. Considering how much he just loves to attack those who attack him, it remains to be seen if Trump’s Twitter feed is soon full of rhetoric, almost comic statements.

For all we know, Trump might come with his classic one-liner, one which has served him so well in the past: “The wall just got 10 feet higher.”

[Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]

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