Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto has said that comments by the US presidential candidate Donald Trump have damaged relationships between the two countries, and compared Trump's "strident" tone to those of fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
In his most outspoken comments so far on the GOP frontrunner, Mr Pena Nieto also denied that Mexico would cover the cost of Mr Trump's proposed border wall.
"There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of strident rhetoric have led to very ominous situations," Mr Pena Nieto told the Mexican newspaper Excelsior in an interview published on Monday.
“That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis.”
Mr Pena Nieto’s comments are the most forceful so far against Mr Trump, whose rise to the top of the Republican primary races has spooked Mexicans of all social strata.
Until now, the president had been somewhat vague in his comments, with broad warnings against populism - interpreted in Mexico as also alluding to leftwing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a contender for the 2018 presidential elections.
When asked is there was a scenario in which Mexico would pay for a border wall, he responded, “There is no scenario.”
In another interview published on Monday with the newspaper El Universal, Mr Pena Nieto was asked if he "worried" about Mr Trump making it to the White House. He responded, "I don't think so," then continued: "Those that insult or end up speaking badly of Mexico do so because they don't know Mexico. Those that speak badly of Mexicans do so because they don't know Mexicans."
Mocking
Mexicans have taken to mocking Mr Trump with memes on social media sites and beating pinatas resembling the real estate mogul-turned-politician. Politicians are speaking out, too, most notably ex-president Vicente Fox, who said, “I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall.”
Mexicans fear Trump rhetoric is a poison that will infect US border policy but analysts say Mr Pena Nieto - whose government plans to counteract negative perceptions of Mexico with an information campaign - is in a tough spot with any Trump response, which will probably end up as fodder for another campaign attack and make Mexico appear to be supporting the Democratic party.
"Why would you egg him on? Anything Mexico says is bound to play in his favour," said Federico Estevez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. "If you punch back ? there you are aligned with the Democrats and you get nothing [in the bilateral relationship] as a result."
Mr Pena Nieto, who spent much the interviews defending his government’s reform agendas and the much-criticised investigation into the 2104 disappearance of 43 students, emphasised that his government was not meddling in internal US politics.
"Mexico, I repeat, and my government, will be absolutely a witness and respectful of the process that the United States has," he said.
Guardian Service