The controversy President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s judicial reform, which makes Mexico the first country in the world to elect all its judges by popular vote, It was ready to be enacted after gaining the support of 18 state congresses.
According to the criteria of
The constitutional amendment, approved on Wednesday by the left-wing majority in the Senate, needed to be endorsed by at least 17 regional parliaments before being sanctioned by the president.
“18 (states) have already been approved, which means it is now legal, because the minimum is 17,” López Obrador said at his daily press conference.
The president added that he will wait for the process to be completed in the 32 entities to sign the text, which must then be regulated by the federal Congress through secondary laws.
Mexico will thus be the first country to elect all its judges by direct vote, including those of the Supreme Court, According to López Obrador, this will cleanse the judiciary of corruption and set an “example” for the world.
The president, whose popularity exceeds 70 percent, accuses the highest court of favoring corrupt politicians, organized crime and of being a trench for the opposition.
But Supreme Court justices, the United States, a UN rapporteur and Human rights organizations warn that the citizen vote threatens the independence of the powers, since judges could be subject to political manipulation and drug trafficking.
The election of nearly 1,600 officials will take place in 2025 and 2027 among candidates proposed equally by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.
Current judges may run for office. If they do not do so, they will remain in office until the elected judges take office.
López Obrador, who will hand over power to fellow party member Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1, pushed for the amendment as part of his confrontation with the Supreme Court, which has blocked reforms that would have expanded state participation in the electricity sector and left citizen security in the hands of the military.
Sheinbaum, elected by an overwhelming majority on June 2, says that the reform will leave behind the “regime of corruption and privileges.”
According to the Supreme Court, impunity in Mexico, where there are around 80 homicides every day and more than 100,000 missing persons, exceeds 90%.
But NGOs such as Impunidad Cero criticise the fact that the legislation does not apply to prosecutors, police and public ministries, which they also accuse of corruption and a lack of investigative capacity.
In states like Guerrero, hard hit by organized crime, some morgues keep records on paper and lack systems to share information with their peers, in a context in which tens of thousands of bodies remain unidentified, according to complaints from officials themselves.
Reform strains relations with the US and Canada
The initiative also strained vital relations with Washington and Canada, which warn of damage to legal security under the T-MEC treaty, which made Mexico the United States’ top trading partner.
The bill was approved after a chaotic day that included the invasion of the Senate by judicial officials, still on strike, and students.
As a result, the deliberations were moved to the former Senate headquarters in Mexico City, as happened a week ago when the Chamber of Deputies had to approve the law in a sports center, as its building was blocked.
Judicial officials say the changes eliminate merit-based promotions, while López Obrador maintains that no one will be fired.
Another controversial aspect of the reform is the faceless judges – a figure applied in countries such as El Salvador in the war against gangs. to preserve the identity of judges in organized crime cases. Salvadoran activists claim that this mechanism has led to abuses against innocent people.
The only case similar to Mexico in Latin America is that of Bolivia, where the magistrates of the high courts are elected by popular vote, while ordinary judges are appointed by a judicial council.
However, the independence of the elected magistrates has been called into question amid the dispute between President Luis Arce and his mentor and former socialist leader Evo Morales (2006-2019).
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