Trump pinata is folklore: Mexican senators

A group of Mexican senators who battered a pinata in the image of US president-elect Donald Trump have chalked the beating up to Mexican folklore.

A video obtained by El Universal showed a group of senators from the left-leaning party whacking the papier-mache-figure, in the form of a business-suited man with a distinctive, gravity-defying yellow hairdo.

"It is a custom in Mexico to break pinatas. We don't need to get alarmed," politicians Beatriz Mojica told media on Thursday.

She added that holiday pinatas often represent "malevolent" figures.

Throughout his electoral run, Trump made derogatory statements about Mexican migrants in the US and promised to erect a wall at the US-Mexico border to prevent the passage of immigrants.

Trump has also said he will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and has threatened to penalise US companies moving factories to Mexico.