By The Opinion
23 Aug 2024, 11:03 AM EDT
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a diplomatic note to the United States to avoid interference in the Mexican judicial reformpointing out that this is a matter of internal politics.
Previously, López Obrador described the statements of Ambassador Ken Salazar as “interventionist” and “imprudent” in Mexico, who said that the judicial reform in progress was “a danger to democracy” and could jeopardize the trade relationship between Mexico and the United States.
“Recently, there have been acts of disrespect for our sovereignty, such as this unfortunate, imprudent statement by Ambassador Salazar yesterday,” said López Obrador. “But a diplomatic note has already been made, a disapproval. Of course, I support what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made known: we do not accept interference, we do not accept that any representative of foreign governments intervene in matters that only we Mexicans are responsible for resolving.”
López Obrador expressed confidence that Ambassador Salazar will take the diplomatic complaint into consideration.
“It is a strange experience for the Embassy. I hope this will not happen again,” he added. “We are in favour of non-intervention, self-determination of peoples, peaceful solutions to disputes and cooperation for development. Sometimes, even in very adverse circumstances, it is understood that we are independent and sovereign and that we must respect each other as good neighbours.”
The Mexican president even expressed his surprise that a trade agreement was reached with former President Donald Trump and that there is a good relationship with the government of President Joe Biden.
“It seems incredible but we reached an understanding with President Trump. We even signed a trade agreement,” he said. “Then there were changes with Biden, who is a very good person, and a policy of respect was maintained.”
In the document sent to the U.S. Embassy, but which must also be reported to the State Department in Washington, DC, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets out Ambassador Salazar’s comments and echoes the words of the Mexican president.
“The statement by the United States Ambassador expressing his position on this issue, which is strictly internal to the Mexican State, represents an unacceptable act of interference, contravenes the sovereignty of the United Mexican States and does not reflect the degree of mutual respect that characterizes the relations between our governments,” says the official document.
Judicial reform in Mexico would lead to the election of judges by popular votewhich has sparked criticism from the judiciary and even a strike, but President López Obrador and lawmakers from his party, Morena, will continue with the plan in the interest of tackling corruption.
“There is a transformation in Mexico, because the people decided so,” said López Obrador. “Not only did they dominate the political sphere, but they imposed the economic agenda on us. They decided on the so-called structural issues. They promoted all the privatizations to transfer, to transfer the assets of the nation, of the people of Mexico, to national and foreign individuals.”
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