Mexico-US relations will continue despite controversy over judicial reform: Ambassador Ken Salazar

Although the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, moderated his tone after Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pause, he assures that the concerns expressed by the United States remain valid, although He emphasized that both countries are going through a historic moment in which the strong binational relationship will be able to navigate the controversial reforms being reviewed by the Mexican Congress, the Judiciary and the disappearance of autonomous regulators.

“Economic integration will continue (between Mexico and the US) and we have a very strong relationship, so the economy will continue to be strong. I have already made my comments on the reforms (in the Mexican Congress) and in any case all of that will transcend and we will get there and we are on the right path,” he said at the end of the ‘Third National Convention: A New Shared Future’, held in Mexico City by the American Society (Amsoc).

Earlier the US ambassador warned that Reforms to the judiciary and the disappearance of autonomous regulators “worried American investors””and that both “could have repercussions” for the country and the Mexico, United States and Canada Agreement (T-MEC).

However, he said that Mexico is the United States’ most important partner in the hemisphere and that this will not change.

“We see Mexico as the most important partner in the hemisphere, and that is not going to change,” he said.

Salazar considered that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has “given his life for Mexico” and can be proclaimed as “a very important champion” for integration in North America and the USMCA.

And at the same time, he confidently observed the arrival of the first female president in North America and Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, who he said is a person who knows the world, the United States and Mexico.

“We have reached a time where women are taking their place at the table of power,” she said.

Mexico and the US dismantlers of drug cartels

For its part, Salazar stressed that part of the historic moment between the two nations also lies in the joint dismantling of drug cartels and the reduction of arms trafficking.

“We are dismantling these drug cartels step by step,” he said.

He also acknowledged the work of Mexicans who participated in the capture of drug traffickers such as the sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, Ovidio Guzmán, known as ‘El Ratón’ and one of the US’s priority targets against fentanyl.

In addition to the capture of the so-called boss of bosses Rafael Caro Quintero and the recent surrender of Joaquín Guzmán López, also part of the ‘Chopitos’ cell and the boss Ismael ‘el Mayo Zambada’, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel.

In both cases, he highlighted the human losses that were paid for their captures, while celebrating “a new stage in the control of weapons and arms trafficking” from the United States to Mexico.

In this regard, he regretted that both the fentanyl produced by Mexican cartels for the entire world and the weapons that arrive from the United States to Mexico are used to kill thousands of people.

In this regard, he pointed out that fentanyl is the cause of death of at least 6,000 Americans and acknowledged that 70% of the weapons used by organized crime in Mexico come from the United States.

Wall or border modernization

The diplomat also highlighted that the bilateral relationship between both nations has escalated to address the historic flow of migrants to North America, while modernizing the shared border or building a wall between the two countries is at stake, in the midst of the US presidential election.

Salazar recalled that in the past, migration problems were addressed by each country; however, he stressed, “we are aligned” and he also positioned himself in favor of addressing the causes that generate migration in the region, with a flow of 20 million migrants.

He also said that today’s border debate will focus on whether to build a wall along the more than 3,000 kilometers shared by the country or modernize the border.

“It will be the vision of some who just want a wall between the United States and Mexico, or it will be the vision that we have reached a modern border that has what is required to protect the environment, that we see what can be done in forgotten places,” he concluded.

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