MEXICO CITY: Protesters stormed Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday, forcing lawmakers to suspend debate on controversial proposals by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to allow voters to vote for judges. A judicial reform plan that experts say would make Mexico the only country in the world to elect all its judges has sparked mass demonstrations, diplomatic tensions and jittery investors. Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Norona called a recess after protesters stormed the upper chamber and entered the chamber chanting “The Judiciary will not fall.” Lawmakers were forced to move elsewhere, to the former Senate building, where they later continued to debate as protesters outside shouted “Senator, stop the dictator!” Lopez Obrador, who wants the bill passed before close ally Claudia Sheinbaum replaces him on Oct. 1, says the courts in the current system serve the interests of the political and economic elite, calling the judiciary “rotten,” corrupt and riddled with nepotism. “The biggest worry for 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,” the left-wing leader told a news conference. Opponents, including court staff and law students, staged a series of protests against the plan, which would have elected Supreme Court justices and other high-ranking judges, as well as local judges, by popular vote. Around 1,600 judges would have to run for office in 2025 or 2027. “This does not exist in any other country,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN 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-level judges are elected. If this reform passes, it will put Mexico in a unique position in terms of its judicial selection method,” she said agency AFP. 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. “Demolition of justice is not the way forward,” she said in a video released on Sunday. Pina said last week that the Supreme Court would debate whether it had the power to stop the reforms, although Lopez Obrador said there was no legal basis for doing so. The reforms were approved in the lower house last week by lawmakers from the ruling parties and their allies, who had to gather at the sports center because access to Congress was blocked by protesters. In the upper house, the ruling coalition is one seat short of 86 votes for the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution. However, there was speculation that she managed to get another vote from the opposition senator, who was branded a “traitor” by members of his own party. The United States, Mexico’s main trading partner, has warned that the reforms would jeopardize a relationship that depends on investor confidence in Mexico’s legal framework. The changes could pose a “great risk” to Mexican democracy and allow criminals to take advantage of “politically motivated and inexperienced judges,” US 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 essential to protecting rights and checking abuses of power”. “Without strong safeguards against the infiltration of organized crime (in the judicial selection process), the electoral system can become vulnerable to such powerful forces,” she warned. Human Rights Watch urged lawmakers to reject what it called “dangerous proposals,” saying they would “seriously undermine judicial independence and violate international human rights standards.” Financial market analysts say investor concerns over the reforms have contributed to a sharp decline in the value of the Mexican peso, which has hit a two-year low against the dollar.
