(Mexico City) Thousands of people, mostly employees of the judicial administration and law students, demonstrated Sunday in Mexico City against a judicial reform that provides for the country’s judges and magistrates to be elected by a “popular vote.”
Critics of the reform, which also includes the United States and human rights groups, say it will undermine the independence of the judiciary by politicizing it and that drug traffickers could more easily control judges by interfering in their election.
The demonstration was held hours before the Senate debated the initiative of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The text was already adopted Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies, where the presidential party and its allies hold an ultra-majority.
“The judiciary will not fall,” chanted the protesters as they marched toward the Senate. The reform provides for judges – including those of the Supreme Court – and magistrates in the country to be elected by a “popular vote.”
The outgoing head of state, whose popularity is around 70%, accuses judges and magistrates of encouraging corruption and criminal groups, and of being responsible for impunity for more than 90% of crimes committed, according to NGOs.
Mr. Lopez Obrador, who will hand over power to his party’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum on March 1,er October, also accuses Supreme Court justices of becoming allies of the opposition, as the top court has obstructed some of the reforms the president has proposed in areas such as energy and security.
In a speech published on social networks and the Court’s websites, the President of the Court, Norma Piña, denounced on Sunday an attempt to “demolish the judiciary” and called for further debate. According to her, two proposals formulated on the basis of “the direct experience of those who administer justice” were submitted.