Peña Nieto to bestow Mexico's highest honor upon Kushner

Mexico’s outgoing government

will bestow the country’s top honor for foreigners , the Aztec Eagle , on Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law , a decision quickly met with derision by critics on social media.

Kushner

, who also serves as a senior White House adviser , will be admitted to the Order of the Aztec Eagle because of “his significant contributions” to a new North American trade pact agreed to in August, the government said in a statement.

Kushner

has often played a key diplomatic role in Trump ’s administration, meeting with Mexican and other foreign leaders and helping broker the deal to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

The award is expected to be formally presented to Kushner on Thursday by outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto , at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.

The honor bestowed on Kushner has been a trending topic on Twitter for days, where it has been criticized by prominent Mexicans .

Journalist Elisa Alanís

criticized the Mexican government 's decision.

“Giving him the Aztec Eagle reflects a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice,” Mexican historian Enrique Krauze wrote in one post, noting that Trump called Mexican migrants murderers and rapists during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Mexican actor Gael García Bernal wrote that the decision to honor Kushner was “tremendously shameful.”

Past Order of the Aztec Eagle honorees include Colombian Nobel literature laureate Gabriel García Márquez and former South African President Nelson Mandela .

Today, Luis Videgaray , Mexico's Foreign Affairs Minister defended the controversial decision, saying that Kushner was being the victim of discrimination for being related to Trump and that without Kushner , there wouldn't be a North American trade pact.

On Monday, President Peña Nieto also granted the Aztec Eagle to Stephen Allen Schwarzman , the president and co-founder of The Blackstone Group , a private investment fund company, for his contribution to the commercial integration between Mexico and the U.S .

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