Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, pictured in January 2019, has sought to strike a cordial tone with the Trump administration, avoiding touchy subjects and focusing on consensus issues (ALFREDO ESTRELLA)

Mexico City (AFP) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declined to comment Thursday on US counterpart Donald Trump’s latest flurry of aggressive tweets, jokingly quoting a well-known line from football coach Velibor “Bora” Milutinovic: “I respect that.”

Lopez Obrador refused to be drawn in his daily press briefing when asked for his reaction to Trump, who tweeted that a rise in homicides in Mexico was contributing to a situation “worse even than Afghanistan” on the US southern border.

“I don’t want to say anything about that,” said Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who took office in December.

He then launched into a tangent on Milutinovic, a five-time World Cup manager from Serbia who spent much of his career in Mexico.

“Do you remember, the older ones among you — all those mature young people — a coach named ‘Bora’ who used to say, ‘I respect that, I respect that?'”

Milutinovic is famous among Mexican football fans for avoiding controversy at press conferences by replying, “Yo respeto” when asked a thorny question.

Like the coach, said Lopez Obrador, “I respect that,” in reference to Trump’s tweets.

“That’s how it is in some cases,” he added with a grin.

Delivering his latest barb against illegal immigration, Trump tweeted: “Very sadly, Murder cases in Mexico in 2018 rose 33 percent from 2017, to 33,341. This is a big contributor to the Humanitarian Crisis taking place on our Southern Border and then spreading throughout our Country.

“Worse even than Afghanistan. Much caused by DRUGS. Wall is being built!”

In reality, the 2018 homicide figure in Mexico was an increase of 15.5 percent from 2017.

Lopez Obrador’s predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, repeatedly clashed with Trump over his planned wall, flatly rejecting his assertion that Mexico would pay for it.

“AMLO,” as the new president is widely known, has so far sought to strike a more cordial tone with the Trump administration, avoiding touchy subjects and focusing on consensus issues like economic development for poor Central American countries to reduce migration.

Disclaimer: This story is published from a syndicated feed. Siliconeer does not assume any liability for the above story. Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Content copyright AFP.