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

This week, those tensions exploded into the open.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said on Tuesday that his government was “pausing” diplomatic relations with the United States in response to criticism by the U.S. ambassador over the final crusade of his six-year presidential term.