In Mexico, justice workers and law students have been on indefinite strike since August 21. They are protesting a reform project pushed by the outgoing government, which involves radical changes to the justice system.
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The main measure that crystallizes the controversy in Mexico is the election of magistrates by popular vote. With a modification of the constitution, more than 1,600 judges, federal and local prosecutors and the ministers of the Supreme Court would be chosen directly in the ballot boxes as early as 2025. The fear is a politicization of justice and the loss of its autonomy in the face of the executive.
Judges would then have to campaign and become dependent on the support of political parties. Some less qualified, but more influential, could win positions with a lot at stake. In a country like Mexico, the fear is that companies or criminal groups with a lot of power could impose a magistrate who is in their pay and makes decisions in their favor.
The UN has expressed its doubts and the United States has also indicated its opposition. The American ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, wrote in a statement that this law was a threat to Mexican democracy and to the relationship between the two countries. With this comment, he almost had a diplomatic incident, since the Mexican president immediately denounced the American attitude, which he considers interventionist, and the government has completely closed itself off from dialogue.
This reform has been wanted and announced by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for a long time and he has almost made it a personal matter. He wants the law to pass before he leaves office at the end of September and that is why he has performed a tour de force by rushing through the new congress which gives him a large majority.
The deputies voted in a completely chaotic context on Wednesday, September 4. While the demonstrators had blocked access to the chamber, the elected representatives retreated to a gymnasium to approve the law by show of hands, seated on plastic chairs. Basically, Mexico needs to radically change its justice system, undermined by corruption at all levels and completely failing since nine out of ten offenses and crimes are never punished.
