▲ Students from public and private universities demonstrated yesterday in favor of judicial reform.Photo G. Canseco
Arturo Sanchez Jimenez
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 6, 2024, p. 4
Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Marcelo Ebrard, who will be heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy, respectively, in Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, said yesterday that the United States does not have the legitimacy to criticize the judicial reform currently being debated in Mexico.
The Mexican people are capable of judging what is best for them. The United States should not deprive them of their rights by suggesting otherwise.
they emphasize in a letter sent to the Washington Post and published this Thursday.
In the letter, the future officials respond to criticisms made by Ambassador Ken Salazar, who has said that the judicial initiative will harm bilateral relations, and by the newspaper itself, which argued in an editorial that Mexican internal affairs are of hemispheric interest.
“Mexico is in an internal process to address the much-needed reform of its justice system, with the aim of strengthening and reinforcing its transparency and effectiveness. These are values that both the United States and Mexico share. However, both U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar and The Post They have criticized this national exercise, arguing that the direct election of magistrates and judges – an important feature of the proposal, but not the only change considered – somehow threatens Mexican democracy. This is both worrying and disconcerting.
“Contrary to the argument of The Post that Mexico’s internal affairs are of hemispheric interest, such interference is contrary to the principle recognized by the UN that nations have the duty not to intervene in matters of the internal jurisdiction of any State. And the nature of the argument put forward by The Post and Mr. Salazar suggests a double standard: what is virtue in the United States is vice in Mexico,” they stressed, while recalling that in the neighboring country many states elect members of the Judiciary by popular vote.
The former officials of López Obrador’s government also emphasize that Mexico respects the internal processes of the United States even when they affect Mexican interests, and that they expect the same to be done.
Just as Mexico respects the United States’ right to self-determination in its political processes, even if the results affect Mexican interests, the United States must show the same respect for Mexico’s sovereign quest for a more transparent judiciary.
they say.
With the majority obtained in the June 2 elections in Mexico, they argue, the president-elect could simply fill the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation with loyalists, as leaders do in many other countries, but His support for direct elections to the Judiciary is an expression of support for Mexican democracy and judicial independence from any administration or leader.
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They said that Mexico will remain open to any constructive engagement and exchange of ideas with the United States, As long as those conversations are rooted in the deep respect that both nations have for each other and for their sovereignty.
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