Clash between the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Claudia Sheinbaum over the reform of the judicial system

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, made some comments about the reform that the country is proposing for its judicial system that provoked reaction from Mexican politicians and institutions.

Salazar expressed during an interview with journalists that the judicial reform proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador poses a "risk" to Mexican democracy. Said reform includes a provision to require that judges be elected by popular vote. This has caused a panic movement among investors and financial institutions. Since the presentation of the proposal, the Mexican peso has fallen steadily in the currency markets.

For Ken Salazar, this reform would make the election of judges a process very vulnerable to the influence of drug trafficking groups that control entire regions of Mexico. With the proposed reform of the system for electing judges, anyone qualified and fit to practice could become a judge in the country's most powerful courts.

"Democracies can’t function without a strong, independent and non-corrupt judicial branch," Salazar told reporters. "Any judicial reform needs to have safeguards that the judicial branch is strengthened, and not the subject to political conditions." Despite his criticisms, Salazar did not clarify whether the approval of this reform would carry sanctions by the Biden-Harris Administration.

The reform must be voted on in the Mexican Congress to become effective. This will occur after the first day of September, when the House returns to work and will be made up of a majority of Morena, the socialist-leaning party of López Obrador, and its allies.

Claudia Sheinbaum responds to Ambassador Salazar

Mexico's president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Ken Salazar's comments to defend López Obrador's proposal. Through social networks, Sheinbaum recalled that "in 43 of the 50 states in the United States of America judges are elected by popular vote," a way of criticizing Salazar.

The claim made by Sheinbaum on social media is inaccurate. While state circuit judges in the United States are democratically elected in many cases, it happens less frequently than she suggested. In eight states, judges are elected through partisan elections, such as in Texas. In eleven other states, judges are also elected by popular vote, but these elections are nonpartisan, with no direct political affiliation.

These 29 states are joined by eleven others that use hybrid election systems for judges, as is the case in Kansas, where judges of the Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are selected through a merit-based process with gubernatorial appointment and retention elections.