Thousands of people, mostly judicial employees and law students, demonstrated in Mexico City on Sunday against a judicial reform that would see the country’s judges and magistrates elected by “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 was due to debate outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s initiative.
The reform project was accepted by the Senate committee on Sunday evening and must be presented in plenary session on Tuesday, for a possible vote on Wednesday.
The text was already adopted on Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies, where the presidential party and its allies are in the ultra-majority.
“The judiciary will not fall,” the protesters chanted.
The reform provides that judges – including those of the Supreme Court – and magistrates of the country will 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. López 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 the debate to continue.
According to her, two proposals formulated on the basis of “the direct experience of those who deliver justice” were submitted.
“What are they afraid of, if what we want is to end corruption?” asked President López Obrador from Tulum, accusing his opponents of wanting to make people believe that the reform would create “instability.”