With a diplomatic career, 80% of ambassadors proposed by AMLO

Andrea Becerril

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday February 12, 2022, p. eleven

The president of the Senate Foreign Relations Commission, Héctor Vasconcelos, rejected the displacement of career diplomats and stated that of the 70 ambassadors and consuls general appointed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador so far in his administration, by at least 80 percent have a career in foreign service.

He explained that they are still waiting for a package of new appointments that the Foreign Ministry will send them – which, as far as they know, are 16 ambassadors – for their ratification.

-Would the appointment of Quirino Ordaz as ambassador to Spain come from there?

– Yes, I don’t know, but in any case, as we already know, the Spanish government has already given its approval, he replied.

Vasconcelos commented that so far in the legislature, most of the 70 appointments have been ratified unanimously, and although in recent days there have been controversies over two or three appointments, they are few. As for the historian Pedro Salmerón, who had been appointed in Panama, the federal Executive ultimately withdrew him.

In only one of the 70 appointments was there an abstention vote; the rest were approved unanimously in the full Senate. He added that The general panorama implies that the appointments made by President López Obrador have been very well received by the members of the Senate and, of course, by the members of the Foreign Relations Committee..

Even in the case of consulates, which do not require Senate ratification, since the federal Executive appoints them directly (with the exception of general consulates, which correspond to large cities and must go through the endorsement of the upper house), the proportion of members of the Foreign Service is overwhelmingly majorityhe stressed.

On the other hand, from the last period of sessions, 35 appointments are pending ratification, among them 22 magistrates of local electoral courts (which must be resolved shortly, since they will have to qualify the next elections in various entities), as well as a counselor of the Federal Judiciary and four honorary counselors of the Citizen Council of the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State, among others.