Mexican president’s legal reforms will lead to a showdown in Congress

Controversial proposals by Mexico’s outgoing president to let voters choose judges hit a final hurdle in Congress on Tuesday, despite mass street protests, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters.

Lawmakers in the upper house of the legislature, the Senate, began discussing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s judicial reform plan ahead of a vote that could take place later in the day or on Wednesday.

The leftist leader, who will be replaced on October 1 by her closest ally Claudia Sheinbaum, claims the courts serve the interests of the political and economic elite, calling the judiciary “rotten,” corrupt and full of nepotism.

“What worries most those who oppose this reform is that they will lose their privileges, because the judiciary is at the service of the powerful, at the service of white-collar crime,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference.

Thousands of people, including court officials and law students, demonstrated last weekend against the plan, which would see even Supreme Court and other high-ranking judges, as well as local judges, elected by popular vote.

“This does not exist in any other country,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

“In some countries, like the US, some state judges are elected, and in others, like Bolivia, high-ranking judges are elected. If this reform is adopted, Mexico will be in a unique position in terms of the method of judicial selection,” she told AFP.

– ‘Demolition of the judiciary’ –

In an unusual public warning, Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Pina said elected judges could be more vulnerable to pressure from criminals in a country where powerful drug cartels regularly use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.

“Dismantling the judiciary is not the way forward,” she said in a video released Sunday.

Pina said last week that the Supreme Court would discuss whether it has jurisdiction to stop the reforms, though Lopez Obrador has said there is no legal basis to do so.

The reforms were passed last week in the lower house by ruling party lawmakers and their allies, who were forced to gather in a sports centre after protesters blocked access to Congress, who returned to the streets on Tuesday.

In the Upper House, the governing coalition falls one seat short of the 86 votes needed to amend the constitution.

In a move that could tip the balance in favour of the ruling coalition, an opposition senator was exempted on health grounds and replaced by his father, prompting cries in the chamber about a ‘traitor’.

– ‘Dangerous proposals’ –

The United States, Mexico’s top trading partner, has warned that the reforms threaten a relationship that depends on investor confidence in Mexico’s legal framework.

The changes could pose a “grave risk” to Mexico’s democracy and allow criminals to “exploit politically motivated and inexperienced judges,” U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said last month.

Satterthwaite also expressed “deep concern” about the plan, calling access to an independent and impartial judiciary “a human right that is essential for protecting rights and preventing abuse of power.”

“Without strong safeguards against infiltration by organised crime (in the judicial selection process), an electoral system can become vulnerable to such powerful forces,” she warned.

Human Rights Watch has called on lawmakers to reject the “dangerous proposals,” which it said would “seriously undermine the independence of the judiciary and violate international human rights standards.”

Financial market analysts say investor concerns about the reforms have contributed to a sharp decline in the value of Mexico’s currency, the peso, which has fallen to a two-year low against the dollar.

dr/jgc