The episode sparked anger for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who described Texas’ behavior as “vile,” while his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, weighed in on Saturday with criticism of his own.
“Let me put this in quotes, it is the extortion scheme, rather an extortion: I close the border and you have to sign what I say, that is not an agreement, an agreement is that you and I agree on something”, Ebrard told the Milenio news network during a visit to Nuevo León.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment made outside normal business hours.
Ebrard did not disagree with the Mexican governors, saying that no alternative had been presented to them.
