Obrador talks of Trump in El Paso visit

Immigrants shouldn't be blamed for the United States' problems, populist Mexican presidential hopeful Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday in El Paso.

More than 100 people heard him speak against President Donald Trump's policies and about his plans to transform Mexico and protect immigrants during an evening rally at San Jacinto Plaza in Downtown El Paso.

López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, hasn't officially declared that he is running in next year's presidential election but he is already seen as one of the top contenders.

Those who voted for Trump in the U.S. fell for a campaign based on xenophobia and are "victims of manipulation, a perverse effort to blame their problems on foreigners, in particular Mexicans," López Obrador said in Spanish.

"On this side of the border, we must tell the four winds that the slogan of 'United States first' or 'America first' is erroneous because in reality the first thing - in any place on the planet - should be justice and universal fraternity" he said.

López Obrador urged people to explain to Trump supporters that "the economic ills experienced by workers, farmers and entrepreneurs in the United States are not the fault of migrants or of Mexico but of bad government, privilege and the bad distribution of income that prevails in this country as in ours."