AMLO freezes ties with US ambassador who criticized reforms – BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his relationship with U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar is “on hold” after criticism of his planned judicial overhaul, but he will not ask the official to leave the country.

Salazar warned last week that Lopez Obrador’s efforts to push through a reform plan requiring popular elections for federal judges poses a “great risk” to Mexico’s democracy and makes it easier for drug cartels to infiltrate the judiciary.

“The relationship is good, but it has been on hold since he said that,” Lopez Obrador said Tuesday during his daily news conference.

AMLO, as the president is known, said his relationship with the Canadian ambassador is also on hold after the official last week raised investor concerns about the reform plan.

He later clarified that the pause concerns his relationship with both embassies and not the US and Canadian governments as a whole.

The president has characterized his reform plan, approved Monday by a key committee in Mexico’s Congress, as a way to root out corruption in the judiciary. But the opposition and investors have expressed concern that it will undermine the independence of the judiciary and undermine checks on the ruling party’s power.

A spokesman for AMLO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what the pause meant for overall government relations. The Canadian embassy declined to comment.

AMLO, who had previously called Salazar “disrespectful,” said he hoped the US administration would issue a statement correcting his comments about the planned reform.

The US and Canada, he said, “must 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 the sovereignty of Mexico.”

The post included an August 23 letter from the U.S. Embassy in response to earlier comments by AMLO. The letter said the U.S. continues to support Mexico’s commitment to the rule of law through judicial reform, but is concerned that electing judges will not address corruption or strengthen the judiciary.

–With assistance from Maya Averbuch.

(Adds Salazar’s answer in the last two paragraphs.)