Protesters took to the streets across Mexico on Sunday in the latest protest against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed judicial reform and other ruling party measures that critics say will weaken democratic checks and balances.
Protesters gathered in Mexico City, as well as in Michoacán, Puebla, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Veracruz and other states.
In the capital, large numbers of people, many of them federal court workers and striking judges, ended their march in front of the Supreme Court building in the heart of the city, waving flags with slogans such as “Judicial independence” and “Respect for democracy.”
“We are now protesting against the reforms, but it is not just the reforms,” said lawyer Mauricio Espinosa. “There are many attacks against the judiciary and other autonomous bodies. What this does is that it ends up strengthening the executive branch, the next president.”
Following big electoral victories by the ruling Morena party and its allies last June, the government has pushed for sweeping changes to the country’s judicial system, which has long been at odds with López Obrador, a populist who has openly attacked judges and ignored court rulings.
His proposal includes that judges be appointed by popular election, something that analysts, judges and international observers fear could pack the courts with judges with political preferences and little experience.
That was Espinosa’s concern, who said that “the judges will have to be accountable, find money to campaign, find someone to back them up. Their rulings will not be 100% independent.”
The proposed changes would require approval by Congress, where the ruling coalition has a majority.
On Friday, electoral authorities awarded Morena and allied parties 73 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, although they won a significantly smaller percentage, 60 percent, of the vote. This would give the ruling bloc the two-thirds majority in the lower house needed to approve constitutional changes with few or no concessions.
The coalition will be a few seats short of a two-thirds majority in the Senate, but it is likely to secure the necessary votes from a smaller party.
Although the new legislators will not take office until September 1, a congressional commission began on Friday to promote another controversial initiative: the elimination of seven autonomous bodies, including the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI).
Morena argues that Mexico’s independent oversight and regulatory bodies are a waste of money. It says government ministries should be doing this oversight work, which would essentially allow them to police themselves.
The actions of the president and his party have fueled concerns about the weakening of democratic institutions. But for many of the protesters, reform of the judiciary represents the greatest threat.
Federal court workers and judges are on strike, the value of the peso has plummeted and international credit rating agencies have expressed concern. Midweek, U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar warned that the election of judges is a “risk” to Mexican democracy and “threatens the historic trade relationship” between the two countries.
López Obrador, who is set to leave office on Sept. 30, and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of Morena, rejected Salazar’s comments. López Obrador called the comments “a lack of respect for our sovereignty,” and Sheinbaum said Saturday that while there will always be dialogue between the United States and Mexico, “there are things that only concern Mexicans.”
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