John M. Ackerman

On June 27, 2020, the head of Public Security in Mexico City, Omar García Harfuch, survived an attempt on his life which he later blamed on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Reacting to the news, Ackerman published a tweet in his personal Twitter account comparing journalists who have been critical of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador with drug cartel hitmen (sicarios), calling them "media sicarios". Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (in Spanish Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) and Reporteros Sin Fronteras condemned Ackerman's tweet, calling it "irresponsible" given that Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

In February 2020 Ackerman was proposed by Rosario Piedra Ibarra, director of the National Human Rights Commission to be a member of the technical evaluation committee of the Mexican National Electoral Institute (in Spanish Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE). This committee has an important role in selecting INE's new directors and Ackerman's nomination was met with criticism due to his close personal and political affinity with the government, and being part of the ruling party's cadre training body. Congressman Juan Carlos Romero Hicks from the National Action Party (in Spanish Partido Acción Nacional, PAN) said that Ackerman did not meet the required neutral background, and René Juaréz Cisneros from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (in Spanish Partido Revolucionario Insitucional, PRI) asked the CNDH to reconsider the nomination due to Ackerman's position in a political party. Together with PAN and PRI, two other opposition parties, Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and Citizen's Movement (MC) contested without success Ackerman's designation, which was confirmed by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.

Ackerman defended the government of Nicolas Maduro, saying Venezuela was "much more democratic and respectful of human rights than Mexico". In the same article, published on La Jornada on 27 March 2017, Ackerman claims there is no electoral fraud in Venezuela, that there is constant media censorship in Mexico, that there are more political prisoners in Mexico than in any other Latin American country and that there is a clear separation of branches of government in Venezuela. He also claimed that Mexico is worse off than Venezuela in terms of corruption, poverty, inequality and violence.