Protesters against the reform of the Mexican judiciarywhich seeks to have judges elected by popular vote, blocked access to the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday hours before lawmakers began voting on an initiative that is increasingly drawing opposition.
Court employees, students and other critics put ropes at the entrances to the House and blocked some nearby streets while chanting slogans such as “Where are, where are, the deputies who were going to listen to us?” or “Judicial reform, a presidential whim.”
Ricardo Monreal, coordinator of the parliamentary group of Morena —the president’s party— said on his social networks that they were not going to ask the police to evict the protesters because they did not want confrontations, so they were looking for alternative venues, including hotels, to hold the session.
However, he guaranteed that “this reform will go ahead, because that is what the people of Mexico told us at the polls” in June, when Morena and its partners won the elections by an overwhelming majority.
The workers are not resigned and say they will continue to fight against the reform in the legal arena and in the streets. “The legislative process is not over yet… more steps are coming… and we will continue to ask to be heard, to be given the opportunity for dialogue, to be allowed to explain the regression into which the entire Mexican State would fall” if this reform were passed, said one of their spokeswomen, Patricia Aguayo.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court workers announced their support to the work stoppage initiated by the federal judiciary two weeks ago.
The suspension of activities at the Supreme Court could begin as early as Tuesday after the session in which the judges are expected to decide whether they too will join the strike. Several of the 11 members of the court, including its president Norma Lucía Piña, have publicly criticized the reform and have expressed solidarity with their striking colleagues. At least two of its members have spoken out in favor of the presidential initiative.
The proposal to change the Constitution and restructure the entire judicial branch of Mexico has generated endless criticism not only from opposition parties but from the entire judiciary, students, social groups, financial consultancies and even from the United States and Canada.
Everyone agrees that the initiative will politicize justice, put at risk basic principles of the rule of law, which could have serious economic consequences by generating uncertainty in Mexico’s markets, investors and trading partners.
At the gates of the Chamber of Deputies, protesters expressed the same fears.
“The majority party could take control of the judiciary and that would practically be the end of democracy,” said Javier Reyes, a judiciary worker who, like many, saw a reform as necessary but not on the terms proposed by the ruling party. “They want to be the new owners of Mexico.”
The constitutional reform process began on Sunday, the first day of sessions of the Chamber of Deputies elected in June in elections that gave the ruling party the two-thirds majority needed to push through changes to the Constitution.
The plenary is expected to begin voting on Tuesday in general, and to finish voting on Wednesday in particular, meaning that, if there are no surprises, it will reach the Senate this week, which must also approve it before passing it on to the states for ratification for its eventual entry into force.
In addition to the harsh criticism, opposition parties have denounced serious irregularities in the process of the reform, which was rushed through by the deputies of the outgoing legislature and imposed on the new parliamentarians without debate, many of whom complained that they had not even been able to read the initiative. Although a judge granted an injunction on Saturday to temporarily suspend its discussion, the ruling party said that her decision was not appropriate.
The reform of the Judicial Branch is the first of twenty modifications to the Constitution proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which also include other highly controversial ones, such as the one that seeks to eliminate independent bodies that serve as a counterweight to the government, such as the transparency body, or those that fight in favor of free competition.
In the Chamber of Deputies, while critics protested, a wall displayed the sentiments of another part of Mexicans. Next to a painting of López Obrador’s face, one could read “Farewell President.”
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