Mexico won't send candidate to Miss Universe over Trump comments

Mexico will not send a contestant to this year's Miss Universe pageant after part owner and TV personality Donald Trump made comments insulting Mexicans, Mexican broadcaster Televisa said on Monday.

Televisa and former Miss Universe Lupita Jones organise a pageant to select a Mexican candidate for the contest.

US broadcaster NBC has also said it would no longer air the pageant after Trump described migrants from Mexico as drug-runners and rapists.

Trump made the comments when he announced earlier this month he was seeking the Republican nomination for the 2016 US presidential election. "For Televisa, any commercial relationship with the Miss Universe pageant and with the companies of the Trump organisation is unacceptable," Televisa said in a statement.

A spokesman said the release meant that a Mexican contestant would not be sent to the pageant.

The announcement came four days after Spanish-language Univision, part-owned by Televisa, said it would not air the Miss USA pageant on July 12 and severed ties to the Miss Universe Organisation.

Ora TV, a Television company co-founded by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and TV personality Larry King has also cancelled a programme it was working on with some of Trump's companies, Slim's spokesman said earlier on Monday.

Political analysts have said Trump, despite being one of America's most recognizable figures, is considered a long shot for the Republican Party nomination in the field of more than a dozen candidates.