Protesters storm Mexico’s Senate during debate on controversial judicial reform

Hundreds of protesters stormed Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday as lawmakers debated a controversial proposal for reform of the judiciarywhich forced the chamber to declare an indefinite recess to safeguard the safety of the senators.

The suspension of the session came just hours after the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party appeared to have secured the votes needed to approve the measure after at least one member of an opposition party was accused of switching sides to support the initiative.

That measure and other political maneuvers prior to the vote on a reform promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is in his last month of government, have unleashed even greater indignation after several weeks of protests by employees of the judicial branch and law students.

Critics and analysts say the measure, which would see judges elected by popular vote, jeopardizes judicial independence and represents a major blow to the government’s system of checks and balances.

Some protesters entered the Senate chamber in an attempt to block the vote after they said lawmakers were not listening to their demands.

Protesters waved Mexican flags and carried anti-reform signs. Outside the chamber, others erupted in jubilation when news reports announced the Senate would be on recess.

The plan was approved last week in the Chamber of Deputies and passed to the Senate, where Morena did not have the two-thirds majority needed for its approval. In recent weeks it managed to add two senators from an opposition party, but as of this week it still needed to persuade one more.

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