Elect the country’s judges by popular vote, reduce the number of magistrates in the Supreme Court of Justice and incorporating the figure of “faceless judges” in cases of drug trafficking and violence are some of the new measures that have just been approved Mexico in a new judicial reform.
According to the criteria of
The initiative, which was promoted by the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo), received the final green light in the Mexican Senate this week and the Executive is expected to promulgate it today after the approval of the majority of the federated states of that country.
With this reform, starting in June 2025, citizens will have to go to the polls to elect a total of 1,688 positions in the Judicial Branch –21 of them are national positions and the rest are divided by state–. In other words, Mexicans will have to elect both the magistrates who make up the Supreme Court (the highest court in the country) and the judges for the entire national territory.
The new system of popular election has been defended by the Amlo government because it gives voters the responsibility of electing the people who administer justice in the country. In fact, the president himself, since he began his term, has accused the justice system of favoring corruption and criminal groups.
However, the international community Mexican sectors have issued harsh warnings about the new changes because they undermine the independence of the powers in the country. In addition, analysts consulted for this article warn about a politicization of justice with this model.
The truth is that Amlo and the judiciary have had differences since the beginning of his term. The highest court, in fact, has blocked López Obrador’s reforms that expanded state participation in the energy sector and left citizen security in the hands of the military, among others.
Against this backdrop, international consulting firms and the Mexican Central Bank itself They have also warned of a possible negative effect on one of the largest economies in the region due to this reform.
From now on, this new chapter that opens for Mexican politics will be the first great challenge that the elected president, the official, will have to face. Claudia Sheinbaumwho will replace Amlo on October 1st.
Disadvantages and effects
In Mexicothe organization Impunidad Cero assures that 94 percent of crimes are not reported and only one percent are solved. Hence, only 10.3 percent of citizens trust the police. Judiciary. By the way, a June poll by the ruling Morena party said that eight out of ten Mexicans supported judicial reform.
“We are going to set an example for the world because the judiciary, it has been more than proven, does not dispense justice,” Amlo said in the past after expressing the need to modernize the judicial system and root out corruption in public power.
Despite these data, citizens are divided. A 21-year-old woman, interviewed by the local press, said that she thought the reform meant a “democratization” of the judicial system. However, another young law student said that judges “are the voice of the law and the Constitution, not of the people.”
The polarization caused by this issue was also evident this week, when hundreds of protesters stormed the Senate headquarters on Tuesday to prevent the reform from being voted on, forcing legislators to move the vote to another room, which was finally approved late at night.
Critics also claim that the reform actually seeks to eliminate judicial independence in order to establish an authoritarian regime and perpetuate Morena in power. They also warn that it limits the administrative career based on merit. With the new changes, the only requirements to be a judge are to be over 35 years old and have more than 10 years of experience as a lawyer.
Supreme Court President Norma Piña, speaking to the British broadcaster BBC, warned about why these measures are inconvenient.
The political-electoral influence of organized crime groups has allowed them to impose candidates who are in line with their interests through violence, mainly in municipal elections. In this sense, these groups will surely succeed in influencing the election of judges, magistrates and ministers in the same way.
“For judges and ministers, we must establish that they are not popular representatives. They are not politicians. They are people who are trained to resolve a conflict in society. Federal judges also resolve problems between individuals and authorities. If it becomes a political issue, logically, how much will that judge respond to his electorate for a popular issue, instead of resolving it as the laws establish?” said Piña.
The other obstacle would be the huge number of judges and positions to be elected. As mentioned, there are 1,688 positions throughout Mexico.
“Do you think that citizens will know all the people who make up that list and will know if this person is capable of resolving conflicts, if they have experience, if they are an expert, if they do things the right way?” Piña said in an interview with the British media.
Another red line is the fear that drug trafficking and Mexican cartel money will enter election campaigns. “The political-electoral influence of organized crime groups has allowed them to impose candidates who are in line with their interests through violence, mainly in municipal elections. In this sense, these groups will surely succeed in influencing the election of judges, magistrates and ministers in the same way,” Edmundo Sandoval, associate director of Control Risks in Mexico, explained to this newspaper.
All this legal uncertainty adds to the possible effects that analysts have already warned about and that Sheinbaum will have to overcome in her first year of presidency.
On purpose, Moody’s agencylike other international financial institutions, warned that the initiative “will undermine the independence of the country’s judiciary” and “could undermine Mexico’s economic and fiscal strength.”
However, López Obrador said on Thursday that “it is not true that capital was leaving the country due to judicial reform,” citing a record of more than 30 billion dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of the year.
But Sofia Ramirez, director of the economic association Mexico, How Are We Doing?, recalled that international companies have announced more than 100 billion dollars in investments, which will now take time to materialize while the legal uncertainty passes.
In addition, trade relations between Mexico and the United States and Canada They also appear to be entering an uncomfortable phase for investors.
López Obrador himself declared a “pause” in his relationship with the US and Canadian embassies, both partners in the USMCA Treaty.
“The future president will be in charge of reviewing the USMCA in 2026 at a time when there is a protectionist sentiment in the United States, so there is pressure for the White House to demand that Mexico guarantee legal certainty for American investment,” he told Efe William Jensen, associate of the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs (Comexi).
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