TRUMP-MEXICO/PAGEANT Mexico won't send candidate to Miss Universe over Trump comments-Televisa

Record ID: 149100

  • Title: TRUMP-MEXICO/PAGEANT Mexico won't send candidate to Miss Universe over Trump comments-Televisa
  • Date: 30th June 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESIDENT, ELIZABETH RODEA, SAYING: "It's good because in the end we have to be in favour of our country and the comments he is making are racist that includes all of Mexican society, then we must make a stand against those people."
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJJGFCHBXMUFSK813G3LO2ZW
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Mexico will not send a contestant to this year's Miss Universe pageant after part owner and TV personality Donald Trump made comments insulting Mexicans, Mexican broadcaster Televisa said on Monday (June 29).
    Televisa and former Miss Universe Lupita Jones organize a pageant to select a Mexican candidate for the contest.
    U.S. broadcaster NBC has also said it would no longer air the pageant after Trump described migrants from Mexico as drug-runners and rapists.
    "For Televisa, any commercial relationship with the Miss Universe pageant and with the companies of the Trump organization is unacceptable," Televisa said in a statement.
    A spokesman said the release meant that a Mexican contestant would not be sent to the pageant.
    The announcement came four days after Spanish-language Univision, part-owned by Televisa, said it would not air the Miss USA pageant on July 12 and severed ties to the Miss Universe Organization.
    Mexico City resident, Maria Elena Infante, said Televisa and Jones, should've reacted faster.
    "It would've also been very interesting if Lupita Jones had been the first one to speak, Ximena Navarrete, everyone involved but anyway, as always Univision and NBC had to come in first so that we were able to muster up the courage and say 'it dies here.' But hey, better late than never. It's ok." Infante said.
    Ora TV, a Television company co-founded by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and TV personality Larry King has also cancelled a program it was working on with some of Trump's companies, Slim's spokesman said earlier on Monday.
    Another resident, Elizabeth Rodea, agreed with the measures.
    "It's good because in the end we have to be in favour of our country and the comments he is making are racist that includes all of Mexican society, then we must make a stand against those people," Rodea said.
    "I feel satisfied those measures were taken to support Mexicans who carry out a dignified job and I think they help the economy of the United States to work and everyday life with the work they carry out over there. I think it's a good measure," said Gustavo Ramirez another Mexico City resident.
    Trump made the comments when he announced earlier this month he was seeking the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
    "And these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you; they're not sending you. 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 but I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting and it only makes common sense, it only makes common sense: they're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America and it's coming probably, probably from the Middle East."
    Political analysts have said Trump, despite being one of America's most recognizable figures, is considered a long shot for the Republican Party nomination in the field of more than a dozen candidates.
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