AMLO Freezes Ties With US Ambassador Who Criticized Reforms
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his relationship with US Ambassador Ken Salazar is “on pause” after criticism of his planned judicial overhaul, although he won’t ask the official to leave the country.
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Salazar warned last week that Lopez Obrador’s efforts to pass a reform plan that would require popular election of federal judges posed a “major risk” to Mexico’s democracy and would make it easier for drug cartels to infiltrate the judiciary.
“The relationship is good, but it is on pause since he stated that,” Lopez Obrador said Tuesday during his daily news conference.
AMLO, as the president is known, said his relationship with Canada’s ambassador is also on pause, after the official raised investor concerns about the reform plan last week.
He later clarified that the pause is in his relationship with both embassies and does not apply to the US and Canadian governments as a whole.
The president has characterized his reform plan, which advanced out of a key committee in Mexico’s Congress on Monday, as a way to root out corruption in the judiciary. But the opposition and investors have raised concerns that it will undermine judicial independence and erode checks on the ruling party’s power.
A spokesperson for AMLO did not immediately respond to a request for comment about what the pause meant for overall relations between the governments. The Canadian embassy declined to comment.
AMLO, who had previously called Salazar “disrespectful,” said he hoped the US government would issue a statement rectifying his comments about the planned overhaul.
The US and Canada, he said, “have to learn to respect Mexico’s sovereignty.”
Salazar responded in a social media post Tuesday afternoon, saying that “we always work with the utmost respect for Mexico’s sovereignty.”
The post included a letter from the US embassy dated Aug. 23 in response to prior comments from AMLO. The letter said that the US continues to support Mexico’s commitment to the rule of law through judicial reform, but that it is concerned that electing judges will not address corruption or strengthen the judiciary.
--With assistance from Maya Averbuch.
(Adds response from Salazar in final two paragraphs.)
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