Simon Romero and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, NYTimes

MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 08 28 2024

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

This week, those tensions exploded into the open.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said on Tuesday that his government was “pausing” relations with the United States Embassy in response to criticism by the U.S. ambassador over the president’s push in the final weeks of his six-year term to make changes to the judiciary, potentially forcing thousands of judges from their jobs.

“Hopefully there will be a statement from them that they are going to be respectful of the independence of Mexico,” Mr. López Obrador said of the United States during his daily news conference. “As long as that doesn’t happen and they continue with that policy, then there is a pause with the embassy.”

“‘Pause’ means that we are going to take a break,” he added, saying it would also extend to the U.S. State Department. But Mr. López Obrador said that overall relations would not be affected, seeking to allay concerns over a potential effect on trade. Mexico is the United States’ top trading partner, and there are growing concerns and warnings about the effect of the judicial reforms on business confidence and the economy.

Mr. López Obrador also announced a pause in relations with the Canadian Embassy after its ambassador, Graeme Clark, relayed Canadian investors’ concerns over the judicial overhaul.

It was unclear what such a pause with the State Department and the embassies would mean in practical terms. Mr. López Obrador did not specify how the pause would play out. But on Tuesday afternoon Mexico’s foreign affairs minister, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, said on social media that the relationship “with our friends and neighbors in North America is a priority and fundamental, and on a daily level remains fluid and normal.”

The president’s remarks came after comments made last week by Ken Salazar, the American ambassador, calling the proposed judicial changes, which include electing judges by popular vote, “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.”

Mr. Salazar asserted that the measures could threaten Mexico’s trade relationship with the United States by eroding confidence in Mexico’s legal framework and emboldening drug cartels to “take advantage of politically motivated and inexperienced judges.”

The criticism was a sharp departure from his long conciliatory approach to his relations with Mr. López Obrador. The Biden administration, which needs Mexico’s cooperation to control migration flows, has rarely criticized Mr. López Obrador, let alone done so publicly, and Mr. López Obrador has asked the United States to leave Mexico’s internal affairs to Mexicans.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the United States Embassy affirmed its “utmost respect for Mexico’s sovereignty” and its “desire to continue its close collaboration with Mexico,” but said that it had “significant concerns that the popular election of judges would neither address judicial corruption nor strengthen the judicial branch.”

Claudia Sheinbaum, the president-elect and Mr. López Obrador’s protégée, has fully embraced the president’s judicial initiative.

“There is this idea that with the judicial reform, the independence and autonomy of the judiciary is lost,” she told reporters on Monday. “It is the other way around.”

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

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

Thousands of federal judges and court workers have already joined nationwide strikes. On Sunday, protesters took to the streets in more than 20 Mexican cities in hopes of bringing attention to what they called an attack against the judiciary.

Attempts to weaken the courts have long been seen as a sign that a country’s democracy is in danger. Once judicial independence takes a blow, experts say, countries can quickly slide toward autocracy. In Poland and Hungary, crackdowns on the courts have made it easier for leaders to consolidate power. Most recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel faced mass protests when he tried to bar judges from overruling government decisions. (The effort was struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court earlier this year.)

Mr. López Obrador says the overhaul is needed to prevent corruption and rulings that allow drug traffickers to 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 houses — has a one-month window 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.

Changing how judges and justices are selected, Mr. López Obrador has said, would wring corruption out of the judiciary and ensure everyone, not just the rich, has access to justice. And — as he himself has said — it would allow his government’s plans, such as transferring the National Guard from civilian to military control, to go unchallenged by Mexico’s Supreme Court.

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

But others, citing the president’s barrage of attacks on judges who have ruled against some of his plans, say the measures amount to a thinly veiled pretext for eroding judicial independence and enhancing the power of Mr. López Obrador’s nationalistic political movement.

“They intend to disappear us as an institution,” said José Fernando Miguez, a spokesman for the striking workers and a court employee in Mexico City. “They intend to disappear people who have spent their entire lives working as judges and magistrates with extensive experience.”

Simon Romero is a Times correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is based in Mexico City.

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Mexico City, covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. 

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 28, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Mexico, Irked By U.S. Envoy, Halts Relations.