Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto shows world he can put socks on properly, gets mauled for 'ignoring' Ayotzinapa and escape of El Chapo

The President, often referred to as EPN, faced backlash for tweeting picture of pair of socks

Mexico president Enrique Peña Nieto (AP)

Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto’s plan to clear up speculation about his sock-donning abilities backfired spectacularly after he posted a picture of his socks on Twitter and an attempt at a pithy accompanying message.

The question over the President’s capabilities in the sock department first arose when Mr Peña Nieto took part in the 2015 Molino del Rey run, wearing a pair of socks with grey squares on the front of the foot, the Latin Times reports.

The squares of grey looked similar to the square of colour commonly found on the heel of a sock, giving the appearance that the President had put his socks on backwards.

After much speculation on Twitter, which gained its own hashtag of #calcetagate, which translates as #sockgate, Mr Peña Nieto took to Twitter to clear the issue up.

He posted a picture of his socks to show that the grey squares were in an odd place and that he had not put them on backwards. He posted the picture with the message: “Aclarando el #calcagate,” or, “Clarifying #sockgate”.

But instead of being celebrated for his response, Mr Peña Nieto was heavily criticised by hundreds of Mexican Twitter users for having the time to clear up issues over socks, but not for issues such as the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students or the escape of Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.