Mexican Congress introduces bill to make all judges eligible for election

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s lower house of Congress on Wednesday passed controversial legislation that would introduce the most sweeping judicial overhaul in a century, requiring all judges to run for office.

In a marathon session that saw lawmakers forced to convene in a gymnasium after protesters blocked the congress building, The lower chamber approved the constitutional measure 359-135 in an initial party-line vote just before sunrise Wednesday morning. The measure, which requires a two-thirds majority, passed in a runoff later that morning and now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass by a razor-thin margin.

Mexico’s ruling party claims that judges in the current legal system are corrupt and wants the country’s entire judiciary – some 7,000 judges – to stand for election.

Critics say the constitutional changes would be a major blow to the independence of the judiciary and they question how such mass elections can take place without drug cartels and criminals putting forward their own candidates.

Attention now turns to the Senate, where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ‘s Morena party is one seat short of a two-thirds majority but could defeat an opposition party. Human rights groups Centro Pro called on the Senate to scrap the measure, saying it “undermines the life of democracy, endangers human rights and violates Mexico’s international obligations.”

Lopez Obrador said that those who opposed it “have no moral position, because everyone knows, the majority of Mexicans know, that corruption is rampant in the judiciary.”

The president has long protested courts that have blocked some of his construction projects and policies because they violate constitutional and legal norms. López Obrador has vowed for months to quickly implement a series of measures, including overhauling the judiciary — and a proposal to eliminate nearly all independent oversight and regulatory bodies.

The Senate vote is expected to be extremely close, though the president’s party appears poised to win the one vote it lacks there. If the bill passes the Senate, it will be sent to Mexico’s 32 state congresses, where it must be approved by most of them. López Obrador’s party controls a majority of the states.

Critics say the measure will undermine Mexico’s system of checks and balances.

“We should build a wall of shame that says, ‘Today begins the fall of our Republic.’ And it should have the date and all the faces of the Morena congresswomen on it,” shouted Paulina Rubio Fernández, a congresswoman from the conservative opposition National Action Party, before the vote.

Alejandro Moreno, the leader of another opposition party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, promised on Wednesday that his party members would vote against the proposal in the Senate, as they did in the lower house.

Wednesday’s vote was made possible by López Obrador’s Morena party and its allies winning an overwhelming majority in the elections of June 2. The all-night session came after protesters blocked the entrance to Mexico’s Congress on Tuesday in an attempt to demand a debate on the judicial review.

The overhaul has fueled a wave of protests by judges, court workers and students across Mexico in recent weeks, reaching a new tipping point on Tuesday when demonstrators strung ropes across the entrances to the lower house of Congress to block lawmakers from entering. That came as the country’s Supreme Court voted 8-3 to join the strikes, add more weight to the protests.

“The party with the majority could take control of the judiciary, and that would practically mean the end of democracy,” said protester Javier Reyes, a 37-year-old federal court worker. “They want to own Mexico.”

Under the current system, judges and court clerks, who act as assistants to judges, slowly qualify for higher positions based on their track records. But under the proposed changes, any lawyer with minimal qualifications would be able to apply, with some candidates being determined by drawing names from a hat.

Mexico’s courts have long been plagued by corruption and opacity, but over the past 15 years they have undergone reforms to make them more open and accountable, replacing many closed, paper-based trials with a more open format of oral arguments.

Both at home and abroad, there are reports that the new changes could be a setback in efforts to clean up the courts.

U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said Tuesday that there is “a lot of concern” and claimed the changes “could seriously damage relations, and I’m not alone in saying that.” Salazar has pointed to the election of judges as his biggest objection to the reform, noting that it would negatively impact investment and the Mexican economy.

López Obrador said last week that he has improved relations with the embassies of the United States and Canada “on pause” after two countries voiced concerns on the proposed reform of the judicial system.

President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, López Obrador’s closest ally, again defended the reform Tuesday night, writing on the social media platform X that it “will not affect our commercial relations, nor national or foreign private investments. On the contrary, there will be more and better rule of law and more democracy for all.”

“If judges, magistrates and ministers are elected by the people, where is the authoritarianism?” she added.

The proposed changes would affect thousands of judges at various levels and would introduce a time limit for judges to rule on many cases, to counter the tendency for some trials to stretch out over decades. More controversially, the reforms would also introduce “hooded judges” to preside over organised crime cases; their identities would be kept secret to prevent reprisals.

And the courts would be largely stripped of their power to block government projects or laws based on citizen appeals. It would also almost certainly ensure that the president’s party retains significant political power long after López Obrador leaves office at the end of the month.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america