Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced on Tuesday, August 27 that there would be a "temporary pause in the relationship with the embassies of the United States and Canada in Mexico", after the statements of diplomats Ken Salazar and Graeme C. Clark on the Mexican governmental initiative to reform the Judiciary.
Part of the reform proposal includes the election of judges. AMLO has said previously that "the proposed reform of the Judicial Branch is due to its being plagued by corruption and serving a rapacious minority. It protects white-collar criminals, both domestic and foreign, and is controlled by heads of criminal organizations.
Therefore, by allowing the people to elect the magistrates, judges, and ministers, it will be possible to begin to clean up corruption, because the officials will know that they represent the people, and their duty is to administer justice."
In a remarkably overt attempt to subvert the sovereignty and internal affairs of another country, US ambassador Ken Salazar publicly called the proposal a “risk” to democracy that would endanger Mexico’s commercial relationship with the United States.
On August 23, responding to these comments AMLO said "We do not accept interference. We do not accept representatives of foreign governments intervening in matters that only we Mexicans have the right to address and decide."
He continued: "Recently, there have been acts disrespecting our sovereignty, such as yesterday's unfortunate and imprudent statement by Ambassador Ken Salazar. I hope this does not happen again."
He also stated "What violation is being committed? Doesn't Article 39 of our Constitution establish that the people have the right to change their form of their government at any time? Why don't you want the people to elect the magistrates and ministers?"
President López Obrador also emphasized that the U.S. government is also intervening by giving money to organizations that allegedly defend human rights but in reality, are dedicated to undermining our government, and he reiterated that Ambassador Ken Salazar's statement refers to matters exclusively within the sovereign authority of the Mexican State. Reading from the diplomatic note, he said:
"This represents an unacceptable action 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."
While AMLO stressed that diplomatic relations with both Canada and the USA would continue, he said that while they were "not going to tell him (Salazar) to leave the country" they need "to be respectful of the independence of Mexico, of the sovereignty of our country, but as long as that is not the case and they continue with that policy, then there is a pause with the embassy. (…) Any government has to defend the sovereignty of its people."
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