Mexico is on track to become the first country in the world to elect all of its judges, magistrates and members of the Supreme Court by popular vote starting in 2025, following the approval of a reform by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that, according to his detractors, undermines the independence of the powers.
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Amid unprecedented protests by judges, law students and workers in the judiciary, The reform took a key step forward on Wednesday after being approved in the Senate with 86 votes in favor and 41 against, once it had passed the Chamber of Deputies last week.
“We are going to set an example for the world because the judiciary, as has been more than proven, does not dispense justice,” said the Mexican president, celebrating the approval of his amendment, which has even strained relations with the United States – Mexico’s main trading partner – and has generated great economic nervousness.
López Obrador, who will hand over power to his fellow party member Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1, pushed for the reform in the midst of a clash with the Supreme Court, which he accuses of favoring corruption and criminal groups and of being a stronghold for the opposition. The highest court has blocked other reforms of his government, such as one that expanded state participation in the energy sector and another that left citizen security in the hands of the military.
Following the Senate’s approval – on a day when protesters broke into the plenary session, leading legislators to hold sessions in an alternate venue – The judicial reform, being a constitutional initiative, must be endorsed by at least 17 state congresses, which does not seem to be an obstacle for Morena, the ruling party, and its allies, since they control two-thirds of the country’s 32 governorships. The reform will then be promulgated by the presidency.
This Wednesday, in fact, just a few hours after the Senate’s decision, the Congress of Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, became the first to approve the reform.
‘Black day’ for judges: what measures will be taken?
According to the Supreme Court itself, impunity in Mexico, where there are about 80 homicides and more than 100,000 missing persons, is over 90 percent. In defense of his reform, López Obrador has said that the current system is corrupt and “deeply detached” from society, which in his opinion has increased impunity and undermined the credibility and legitimacy of judges and magistrates.
But some justices on the Supreme Court, as well as the United States, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, warn that election by popular vote could leave judges at the mercy of political and criminal interests.
“Today is a black day for our rule of law and for the future of our nation. The majority of the ruling party, resorting to the most disloyal and unacceptable practices in a democracy, has decided to approve a reform that threatens the independence of the judiciary,” said Juana Fuentes, national director of the Association of Circuit Magistrates and District Judges of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (Jufed), on Wednesday, adding that The reform “will put at risk the protection of fundamental rights” of all citizens.
Mexican judges and magistrates – on strike for three weeks – announced on Wednesday that they would not rule out taking measures at the national and even international level to try to stop the amendment from coming into force. One of them, they announced, is to take the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, one of the international bodies to which Mexico belongs that could rule against the constitutional change.
The changes in the reform and why it is worrying
The initiative has strained Mexico’s key relations with the United States and Canada, which warn of damage to legal security under the T-MEC trade agreement. In addition, economic consultancies link the legal changes to the recent depreciation of the peso against the dollar, and refer to investor concerns regarding the independence of judges.
The reform calls for the election of some 1,600 judicial positions, which will take place in 2025 and 2027 between candidates proposed equally by the Executive, Legislative – where the ruling party has large majorities – and Judicial branches. Current judges may run for office, but if they do not, they will remain in office until the elected judges take office.
What this method aims at is that the judges submit to the moods of the electorate.
For Guadalupe Salmorán, a researcher at the Institute for Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, “this electoral method is regressive and would undermine the independence and impartiality of judges because it would force judges to compete for their positions in the same arena as traditional politicians. What this method seeks is for judges to submit to the moods of the electorate, so that instead of the application and interpretation of the law guiding their decisions, the interests and opinions of the voters come into play.”
Among the other changes brought by the amendment are the figure of “faceless judges” to confront organized crime and a reduction in the number of members of the Supreme Court, which would be reduced to nine instead of the current 11, and whose positions would be held for 12 years, three fewer than at present. It would also eliminate the two chambers that are currently in operation and the Court would only hold plenary sessions.
The reform is being questioned in particular by Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, who had called for it to be reconsidered in order to safeguard the independence of judges. If approved, it would leave Mexico “in a unique position in terms of the method of choosing judges,” she said on Tuesday.
The judges and magistrates, who insist that they will continue their strike, announced on Wednesday a formal request to the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, to veto the amendment. “It is an opportunity for the president to realize that this cannot be favorable”said the circuit judge of the state of Jalisco, Mario Alberto Domínguez.
However, that seems, at least for now, an unlikely path. Sheinbaum backed the reform on Wednesday and said that it “will strengthen the administration of justice.”
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