Senate considers alternate venues for judicial reform

Chilpancingo, Mexico.- Gerardo Fernández Noroña, president of the Senate, reported that they are analyzing alternative venues to discuss the reform of the Judicial Branch, in case they cannot do so in their building due to protests by workers and organizations that are against it.

“I hope we can hold sessions at our headquarters on Paseo de la Reforma. If not, we would hold sessions at the historic headquarters, known as Casona de Xicoténcatl, and failing that, even, with authorization from the Board of Directors, we could hold sessions in a space outside the Senate buildings in the country’s capital; there has been talk of the Bancomer Center (in Santa Fe) and the Banamex Center (in Lomas de Sotelo),” he said in a video message.

This Friday, one day after the senators met in Xicoténcatl, in the Historic Center, due to the demonstration of workers of the Judicial Branch who see their rights affected by the reform that puts the positions of ministers, magistrates and judges to a direct vote and eliminates the judicial career, Noroña said that the analysis will begin on Sunday. It is expected that the initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, endorsed early Wednesday morning by the majority of deputies in the Weapons Room of the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City, will be analyzed on Sunday in the joint commissions of Constitutional Points and Legislative Studies of the Senate; on Tuesday it will be presented in the Plenary Hall and on Wednesday it will be put to a vote.

With 85 of the 128 senators, Morena and its allies from the PVEM and the PT require one more vote to approve the constitutional reform.

“If it is approved, which I believe it will be, it will be sent immediately to the state congresses, so that at least 17 of them approve it and this very important revolution can be enacted,” he said. Morena has rushed the reform, as it has presented it as a “gift” to López Obrador, who will leave office on September 30. “We are going to create the conditions so that the debate takes place ideally in our headquarters and, failing that, in the best possible conditions. It goes without saying that I will provide institutional leadership, that I will promote debate, respect for diverse ideas, and that the analysis is deepened,” he said about the initiative rejected by organizations of lawyers, students, businessmen, and even by the United States and Canada.