Mexicans Will Now Choose Their Judges: President AMLO’s Parting Shot & Why It’s Caused a Rage

New Delhi: Mexico is likely to become the first country in the world to elect all of its judges through popular vote, after outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed an official decree on Sunday for the controversial judicial reform law.

The law, which aims to elect more than 6,000 judges and magistrates, including those who preside over the Supreme Court, has faced opposition inside and outside the country. The changes have been hailed by government officials as “historic” and “popular will.”

The law, passed by the Senate, is one of the ultimate goals of President Lopez Obrador. The 70-year-old Mexican president, known for his disagreements with the judiciary, has often criticized it for corruption and accused judges of being part of the mafia.

The judicial reform he implemented in the final weeks of his six-year term is a “means to clean up corruption in the courts,” he said.

“It is very important to put an end to corruption and impunity. We will make great progress if the people of Mexico freely elect the judges, the magistrates and the judges,” Lopez told reporters. “Judges, with honorable exceptions … are at the service of a predatory minority that has dedicated itself to plundering the country.”

In this historical past, the decision for the publication of the official Diario federation of the constitutional reform of the judiciary is confirmed, for example, in Congress and in the mayor of the local legislature. I am accompanied as a witness by the elected president Claudia… photo.twitter.com/bkfjbpTp1b

— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) September 16, 2024

While convictions in corruption cases are unclear, a government survey suggests that 66 percent of Mexicans consider judges to be corrupt. The judiciary is also seen as a space for nepotism and “influence trading,” with some 37 percent of judicial officers already having at least one family member in the judiciary. And the new law aims to tackle this problem as well. The new law also reduces the number of Supreme Court justices from 11 to nine, reducing their terms to 12 years.

Another reason for the revision is the presence of drug cartels, which have put pressure on judges and threatened them with death in several cases. The new law also states that organized crime can be dealt with by “anonymous judges.”

Under this new law, elections will take place in two ballots: the first in 2025 and the other in 2027. Mexicans will vote for judges in various disciplines, magistrates and Supreme Court justices. According to reports, voters will have to manually write the names of up to 10 preferred candidates for each position on the ballot.

In Mexico City alone, more than 150 positions will see a contest with 1,000 candidates. It could take 45 minutes just to fill out the ballots, experts said Financial TimesAccording to President-elect and Lopez Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, the elections will cost approximately $360 million.

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Commotion and diplomatic tensions

The judicial changes have been met with fierce resistance, with students, federal court workers, judges and academics protesting the law. Protesters stormed the Senate last week to block a vote while lawmakers debated the bill. More than 100 judges have opted for early retirement in protest of the law. Financial Times reported.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Lucia 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. The world And AFP reported.

Tyler Mattiace, a Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch, argued that “their (president and president-elect) focus on how judges are chosen is misguided. Their proposal will do nothing to address the real bottleneck in Mexico’s justice system: the willingness and capacity of prosecutors to investigate.”

The Mexican Congress approved the first of these four dangerous proposals last night.

Starting next year, approximately 7,000 judges will be summarily dismissed and replaced.

The other 3 proposals (more pre-trial detention, more power for the military, less transparency) are yet to come. https://t.co/dN4pG9UrSE

— Tyler Mattiace (@TMattiaceHRW) September 11, 2024

Outside the country, the US and Canada have expressed concerns, calling Lopez Obrador’s new law a “risk to democracy,” creating diplomatic tensions. Comments by US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, in which he said the new law could “threaten” Mexico’s commercial relationship with the US, one of its main trading partners, were called “disrespectful” to the country’s sovereignty by the president.

Canadian Ambassador Graeme C. Clark also voiced similar concerns, saying investors are “concerned” about the prospect of increased uncertainty. “My investors are concerned. They want stability. They want a legal system that works when there are problems,” he said.

A review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), due in 2026, could be affected by the new law. Moody’s Ratings, a New York-based rating agency, has also commented on the issue, saying the “legal review will erode checks and balances, risking undermining Mexico’s economic and fiscal strength.”

While the new government under incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum could roll back the law and even create evaluation committees to woo investors, the country’s first female president has yet to express any intention of doing so, having sat next to President Lopez Obrador when he signed the decree.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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