Mexico breaks ties with US embassy over dispute over judicial review – DNyuz

For months, tensions have been mounting in Mexico over the president’s sweeping plans to overhaul the judiciary, straining diplomatic relations with the United States and shaking the country’s political system.

This week, those tensions came to light.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from Mexico said Tuesday that his administration was “pausing” ties with the U.S. embassy in response to criticism from the U.S. ambassador over the latest crusade of his six-year presidential term.

“Hopefully there will be a declaration from them that they will show respect for the independence of Mexico,” Mr. López Obrador said of the United States during his daily news conference. “Until that happens and they continue with that policy, then there is a pause with the embassy.”

“’Pause’ means we’re going to take a break,” he added, saying it would also apply to the U.S. State Department. And in a possible attempt to allay concerns about the potential impact on trade, Mr. López Obrador also said overall U.S.-Mexico relations would not be affected.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. López Obrador also announced a pause in relations with the Canadian embassy, ​​which had raised concerns from Canadian investors about the legal reform.

In a statement, several senior members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee expressed “deep concern” that the proposed changes could conflict with commitments Mexico made in the 2020 Mexico-Canada-United States trade agreement.

The president’s freeze of diplomatic relations with the U.S. embassy follows comments last week by Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador, who called the proposed legal changes “a grave risk to the functioning of Mexican democracy.” Mr. Salazar said the measures could threaten Mexico’s trade relationship with the United States by undermining confidence in Mexico’s legal framework and encouraging drug cartels to “take advantage of politically motivated and inexperienced judges.”

Mexico’s newly elected Congress could begin voting as early as next week on changes proposed by Mr. López Obrador. If passed, they would shift the entire judiciary from an appointment system based largely on specialized training and qualifications to one where virtually anyone with a law degree and a few years of experience could run for judge.

The measure could result in more than 5,000 judges, from the Supreme Court to local district courts, losing their jobs.

Thousands of federal judges and court workers have already joined nationwide strikes. In addition, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in more than 20 Mexican cities on Sunday, hoping to draw attention to what they call an attack on the judiciary.

Mr. López Obrador says the overhaul is needed to prevent impunity and rulings that let drug traffickers go free. Although his term ends in October, the new Congress — where the ruling party, Morena, and its allies have secured large majorities in both chambers — still has a month’s time while Mr. López Obrador is still in office to approve dozens of proposed constitutional changes, including the president’s plan to elect judges and justices by popular vote.

Mr. López Obrador has said that changing the way judges and justices are selected would weed out corruption in the judiciary and ensure that everyone, not just the wealthy, has access to justice. And — as he himself has acknowledged — it would ensure that his administration’s projects would go unchallenged in Mexico’s Supreme Court.

“The judiciary is hopeless, it is rotten,” he said last May, when he first presented his ideas for an overhaul. “It is completely at the service of the conservative bloc.”

Others, however, pointing to the president’s spate of attacks on judges who have spoken out against some of his plans, say the measures amount to a thinly veiled pretext to undermine the independence of the judiciary and increase the power of López Obrador’s nationalist political movement.

“They are going to make us disappear as an institution,” said José Fernando Miguez, a spokesman for the striking workers and a judicial official in Mexico City. “They are going to make people disappear who have worked their whole lives as judges and magistrates with extensive experience.”

So far, Claudia Sheinbaum, the president-elect and a protégée of Mr. López Obrador, has fully embraced his initiative. After Mr. Salazar, the ambassador, raised concerns, Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters: “There has always been dialogue, but there are issues that only concern Mexicans.”

The story Mexico ends ties with US embassy amid dispute over judicial review first appeared on the New York Times.