The reform to the Judicial Branch promoted by Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been approved by the parliamentary factions of Morena, the ruling party, and its allies from the PT and the PVEM in the Chamber of Deputies. This reform to the judiciary is the most profound since 1994 and seeks – that is its cornerstone – that all federal judges, including the ministers of the Supreme Court, be elected by the vote of the citizens at the polls starting next year. President López Obrador has been the great promoter of this legislative project and the elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has assumed it as her own. The opposition formations, PAN, PRI and Movimiento Ciudadano, have voted against it, as they had announced. Their rejection has been rather symbolic, since the official steamroller can approve amendments to the Constitution without restrictions, with its overwhelming majority obtained in the elections of June 2.
The amendment, which still needs to be ratified by the Senate, was voted on in an alternate venue to the lower house, which had been occupied since early Tuesday morning by workers from the Judiciary. The improvised plenary hall, a sports pavilion, was heavily guarded by dozens of Mexico City police officers equipped with helmets and shields. The session took place amid celebratory applause from the ruling bloc and cheers for López Obrador and Sheinbaum, who will take office in a month. “The people are fed up with the dictatorship of the cap and gown, of the crytocracy [gobierno de los jueces]”, said Ricardo Monreal, head of the Morena bench, from the unexpected rostrum.
The deputies have approved the judicial reform in general terms, and have given way to discuss in particular the reservations placed on the table by the opposition, a process that will take hours and will conclude on Wednesday. Morena has opted for the tactic of extending the debate, to support the discourse that the amendment was analyzed exhaustively and that the parliamentary steamroller was not used without further ado. Once the process in the lower house is completed, the reform will have to be voted on by the Senate of the Republic, where the Morena-PT-PVEM bloc is one seat away from having the necessary majority to ratify it, a goal that seems easily achievable for the ruling party.
The deputies met in full session in a sports center located in the east of Mexico City, kilometers from the headquarters of San Lázaro, in response to protests by employees of the judiciary. The alternative location turned out to be a covered pavilion normally used for sporting events, without conditions to host a parliament. Monreal explained that this site was chosen because that is where “the people go” to watch shows. Despite the police protection, a new demonstration met the deputies: outside the new building, several groups of law students protested all day and into the night, demanding a dialogue with the ruling majority.
The session was an example of improvisation. Some plastic tables and chairs for 500 deputies, plus those of their advisers, were placed in the center of the pavilion, a huge warehouse with almost no ventilation, roofed with sheets and the floor covered with carpets. On the edges, in what are usually steps for the public, the press was accommodated, without light or internet outlets. As the hours passed, in the afternoon drowsiness, the Chamber workers tried to make up for the shortcomings, at least for the legislators: bottles of water and soda, rolls, fruit and coffee arrived; later, food, tacos, pizza, sandwiches, cakes… Speakers and a lectern for the speakers also arrived. The tables were not enough: on the floor, some advisers worked on their computers, under the protection of a fan. Towards night, in the back of the room, a proper banquet was finally arranged for the deputies and their collaborators.
During the morning, there was a question mark over whether the opposition parties would participate in the debate and the vote. Representatives of the PAN, PRI and MC were opposed to changing the venue for discussing the reform. But in the afternoon, an agreement was reached in the governing bodies of San Lázaro, where the heads of the parties participate. These negotiations took place in an empty room next to the auditorium, with the legislators sitting in plastic chairs and without tables, in a semicircle.
After several hours of delay, the session began at 4:30 p.m. The PAN group tried to stop the debate based on the suspensions that two judges issued over the weekend. “Since we are in an absolutely and resolutely illegal procedure before district courts, we have challenged this session and it is our right to formally challenge the session. Legislators who ignore the suspensions may fall into liability and, therefore, into contempt,” said deputy José Lixa. Other members of the PAN and MC pointed out that there was not even a guarantee that those present at the session were, in fact, legislators, given the precarious conditions of certainty in which the session was being held. From the ruling party, several deputies responded by raising their identification cards. In the end, in the absence of the electronic board used in San Lázaro in the voting, the legislators cast their vote verbally.
PAN member María Gamboa criticized the walling off of the ruling majority behind the doors of the alternate headquarters. “This is a gymnasium that is not designed for debate. This is not the headquarters where we should be. The conditions are there.” [en la sede oficial del Congreso]. And, if they did not want to debate there, it is because they do not want to face the people they say they love and who say they love them, but who they fear,” he said. His co-religionist Héctor Téllez added: “This is a completely spurious seat of ignominy, which we are going to challenge by all legal means.” The PAN members chanted a new slogan several times: “Resistance, resistance!” At one point in the debate, the entire bench stood up and stood in front of the tribune with banners that read: “Without justice there is no future” and “I am resistance.” The Morena deputy Guillermo Rodríguez answered: “You are not the resistance, you are the decadence of this country!”
Monreal has spoken on behalf of Morena in favor of the reform. The leader of the majority faction has accused the Judicial Branch of usurping functions of the Legislative Branch — a “gross interference,” he said — to overturn several of the amendments that the López Obrador Government had promoted. He has pointed out that the judges became an instrument of the right. “Judicial thinking was aimed at instituting the government of the judges,” he defined. “They installed themselves in the Judicial Branch as a third legislative chamber. This mechanism of cryptocracy was implemented and used by the right. They attempted a technical coup d’état. The Legislative Branch cannot be subject to any judge or authority other than our sovereignty,” he pointed out. The Morena leader has specified that in several democracies around the world they are discussing what the limits of the judiciary should be. “Mexico is building a justice system that will be an example in the world,” he pondered.
The PAN, PRI and MC deputies agreed that a reform to the judiciary is necessary to combat acts of corruption and to speed up the administration of justice, but they distanced themselves from the solution proposed by Morena and its allies. “Something that judges do not deserve is a general condemnation, an abstrac
t condemnation, a condemnation of the entire Judicial Branch. It is not true that all judges are corrupt. The punishment, the sentence must be individualized,” said PAN member Germán Martínez. Juan Zavala, from MC, has asked the majority bloc not to make “the just pay for the sinners” for the isolated cases of corrupt or abusive judges. “If it bothers you so much, if it irritates you so much who are ministers of the current Court, elect ministers with your majorities, but do not ruin an institution full of honest and dedicated people,” he said. Julen Rementería, from PAN, has said that the amendment implies “the destruction” of one of the powers that make up the Mexican Union. “You are shamelessly installing an autocracy in this country. You are giving the judiciary a deadly blow,” he said.
The ruling party has insisted that the reform will not affect the labor rights of judiciary workers, another of the thorny points of the law. “Minister Norma Piña, you are a heartless, cruel and dehumanized woman,” said PT deputy Lilia Aguilar in reference to the president of the Supreme Court. “You have deceived the workers of the Judiciary by telling them that their labor rights will be affected, lying to them; in reality, you send people to defend your privileges.” The ruling party legislators insisted that the reform is not revenge against the ministers of the Court for their decisions against the Government and assured that the judiciary will maintain its independence. Towards the end of the discussion, the Morena-PT-PVEM bloc began to shout: “The reform is going!” The name of López Obrador, the mastermind behind this amendment to the Constitution, was chanted several times. The legislators of the ruling bloc defined him as “the best president” that Mexico has had in many years. Approving this reform has been an offering for him, just weeks before he hands over his post and retires from public life forever.
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