Mexico’s Senate approved constitutional reform on Wednesday after being invaded by protesters opposed to the plan, making the country the first in the world to elect all of its judges by popular vote.
Wanted by the outgoing left-wing president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, the reform was adopted by 86 votes in favor, or two-thirds of the 127 senators present in the upper house, dominated by the ruling Morena party and its allies, and 41 votes against from the opposition parties.
Several hundred protesters invaded the Mexican Senate headquarters on Tuesday to oppose this explosive reform of the judiciary, forcing the debates to be relocated.
“Senators, stop the dictator”, “the judiciary will not fall”: these were the slogans chanted by the dozens of demonstrators who managed to reach the chamber, Mexican flags in hand.
After breaking through the security barriers, they forced the president of the Senate Gerardo Fernandez Noroña (presidential majority) to adjourn the session.
Fernandez Noroña announced shortly after that the session would be relocated to the former seat of the Senate. “There will be a reform of the judiciary,” he added.
The debates resumed in the evening in the new enclosure, around which the protesters also moved.
The protesters, mainly striking judicial officials and law students, are opposing the reform, which makes Mexico the first country in the world to appoint all of its judges by “popular vote,” including those on the Supreme Court.
This reform generates strong tensions with Washington, the country’s main trading partner, and within Mexico where demonstrations have been daily for several weeks.
The reform had already been adopted last week by deputies in a gymnasium, under basketball hoops, after the Lower House was blocked by demonstrators.
The Mexican head of state, who will hand over power on the 1er October to Claudia Sheinbaum, from the same party, argues that Mexican justice is corrupt and only serves the economic interests of the elites, while more than 90% of crimes remain unpunished in Mexico according to NGOs.
Although the reform passed without a hitch in the Lower House, where the ruling coalition’s deputies are in the ultra-majority, the presidential party and its allies were one vote short of adopting the reform in the Senate, which they finally obtained in extremis.
Opponents believe that this reform will weaken the independence of judges and make them vulnerable to pressure from organized crime.
The opposition parties, the PAN, the PRI and the Citizen Movement, said they would vote against it. “We have said it before and we will repeat it: we will fight to the end to prevent this outrage to the Republic and democracy,” wrote Citizen Movement Senator Alejandra Barrales.
“The demolition of the judicial system is not the way forward,” warned Supreme Court President Norma Piña in a video posted on social media on Sunday.
“Deep concerns”
Mr. Lopez Obrador, who has often criticized the high court for holding back several of his reforms, warned Mr.me Piña against a possible attempt to block it, which he said would constitute a “flagrant violation” of the Constitution.
“What worries most those who are against this reform is that they will lose their privileges, because the judiciary is at the service of the powerful […] and white-collar crime,” the outgoing president, whose popularity is around 70%, said on Tuesday.
The United States, Mexico’s main trading partner, sees the reform as a “risk” to Mexican democracy and “a threat” to bilateral trade relations, as Mexico has supplanted China as its northern neighbor’s top trading partner.
Investor concerns about the reform have contributed to a sharp decline in the peso, which hit its lowest level in two years against the dollar last week, experts say.
This is the consequence of “external factors,” Lopez Obrador responded on Monday. “It is urgent to clean up (the judicial system) in the interest of all, including (those) who invest in Mexico.”
The Mexican government denounced “interference” by the United States in its internal affairs and “paused” at the end of August its relations with the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, who has publicly criticized the reform on several occasions.