Crowds of protesters invaded Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday, forcing lawmakers to postpone debate on outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s controversial proposal to allow voters to elect judges.
The judicial reform plan, which experts say would make Mexico the only country in the world to select all its judges, has sparked mass protests, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters.
Senate President Gerardo Fernández Norona declared an “indefinite recess” as protesters stormed the building, while television images showed crowds of demonstrators inside the upper house chamber.
Upper House lawmakers began debating the proposals on Tuesday, following which a vote was expected to be taken either today or Wednesday.
López Obrador, who wants the bill passed before his close ally Claudia Sheinbaum replaces him on October 1, argues that courts in the current system serve the interests of political and economic elites, and has described the judiciary as “rotten”, corrupt and riddled with nepotism.
“The biggest concern of the people against this reform is that they will lose their privileges because the judiciary is at the service of the powerful, at the service of white-collar criminals,” the Left leader said at a press conference.
Opponents, including court employees and law students, have staged numerous protests against the plan, which would see Supreme Court and other high-level judges, as well as local-level judges, elected by popular vote.
Serving judges will have to stand for election in 2025 or 2027.
“This is not the case in any other country,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
“In some countries, such as the US, some state judges are elected, and in others, such as Bolivia, high-level judges are elected. If this reform passes, it will put Mexico in a unique position in terms of its method of judicial selection,” he told AFP.
– ‘Destruction of the judiciary’ –
In an unusual public warning, Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Pina said elected judges may be more vulnerable to pressure from criminals, in a country where powerful drug mafias routinely use bribes and intimidation to influence officials.
“Demolishing the judiciary is not the way forward,” he said in a video released Sunday.
Pina said last week that the top court would discuss whether it has the authority to block the reforms, though López Obrador has said there is no legal basis to do so.
The reforms were passed last week by ruling party lawmakers and their allies in the lower house, who were forced to gather at a sports centre as protesters blocked access to Congress.
The ruling coalition in the upper house needs 86 votes for the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution, but is just one seat short.
In a move that could potentially tilt the balance in favour of the ruling coalition, an opposition senator was removed on health grounds and replaced by his father, leading to chants of “traitor” in the House.
– ‘Dangerous Proposal’ –
Mexico’s main trading partner, the United States, has warned that these reforms would threaten a relationship that depends on investor confidence in Mexico’s legal framework.
U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said last month that the changes could pose “a major threat” to Mexican democracy and enable criminals to exploit “politically motivated and inexperienced judges.”
Satterthwaite also expressed “deep concerns” about the plan, calling access to an independent and impartial judiciary “an essential human right to protect rights and prevent abuse of power”.
“Without strong safeguards to guard against organized crime infiltration (into the judicial selection process), the electoral system may be vulnerable to such powerful forces,” he warned.
Human Rights Watch urged lawmakers to reject these “dangerous proposals,” saying they would “severely undermine judicial independence and violate international human rights standards.”
Financial market analysts say investor concerns about the reforms have led to a sharp drop in the value of the Mexican currency, the peso, to a two-year low against the dollar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
