Mexican president dismisses critique of judicial reform bill as interventionist, disrespectful

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's president blasted the U.S. ambassador's criticism of his judicial reform bill as disrespectful on Friday while pointing to what he called a long history of "interventionist policy" across the Americas advanced by the United States.

Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made passage of the controversial judicial overhaul, which has spooked markets, a top priority in his final weeks in office.

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar labeled the proposed overhaul, which would elect judges by popular vote, a threat to Mexican democracy in a letter he posted on social media.

At his regular morning press conference, Lopez Obrador strenuously defended his reform push, set for a congressional vote in September during his final month in office. He argued it would help Mexican judges combat corruption and clean up what he often derides as corrupt elements within the judiciary.

The president's leftist Morena party and its allies won sweeping congressional majorities in June's general election, likely giving them the two-thirds vote needed to write the reform into the country's constitution.

"There has been ... a lack of respect of our sovereignty, like this unfortunate, reckless statement from Ambassador Ken Salazar yesterday," said Lopez Obrador, who largely ignored the diplomat's argument.

"We don't accept any representative of foreign governments intervening in affairs that only correspond to us," he added.

In his letter, Salazar argued that the reform bill currently before lawmakers would make Mexico's judiciary more vulnerable to influence from organized crime as well as threaten the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship, "which relies on investors' confidence in Mexico's legal framework."

The letter is the strongest criticism to date of the proposed judicial reform from a representative of Mexico's largest trading partner and marks a significant ratcheting up of tensions between the two countries over the issue.

(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Jonathan Oatis)