Controversial Judicial Reform Amendment Passes Mexican Congress and is Approved “Fast Track” by States

 by Allan Wall

The controversial judicial reform constitutional amendment has been passed by both houses of the Mexican Congress. The next step was for it to be approved by the states, which happened Fast Track on the morning of Thursday, September 12.

The Washington Post had a good summary of the situation. From the Post: Mexico’s Senate voted early Wednesday [September 11th] to abolish the current judicial system and allow citizens to choose nearly all of the country’s judges, a drastic change that U.S. officials warn could pose “a major risk” to the democracy of its top trading partner. The ruling leftist party, Morena, barely mustered the two-thirds of Senate votes required for the constitutional amendment amid furious protests by students and judicial workers. Eighty-six lawmakers voted in favor, while 41 voted against.

Demonstrators actually broke into the Senate chamber to protest: Raucous demonstrators burst into the chamber during the debate, chanting “Traitors!” and shattering a glass door. Lawmakers escaped to a nearby colonial-era building that formerly housed the Senate, and resumed the session under heavy police guard. “You are taking part in one of the biggest steps backward in the history of Mexico,” Sen. Verónica Rodríguez Hernández of the conservative opposition National Action Party said, addressing the ruling party and its allies from a lectern.

Demonstrators entering a capitol building – where have I heard of that before?

A PAN senator broke ranks and voted for the reform.
Morena and its allies initially appeared to be one vote short of the two-thirds Senate majority. Opposition leaders alleged the ruling party had tried to lure senators to switch sides, either by offering bribes or threatening judicial investigations of alleged misdeeds.

When Sen. Miguel Ángel Yunes of the National Action Party announced from the lectern Tuesday night [September 10th] that he would support the bill, he was met with a chorus of boos from fellow party members. Morena senators waved their fists in the air, yelling “The reform advances!”

The Cámara de Diputados (equivalent to the House of Representatives) had previously passed the reform.

And the next step?

The amendment has already passed the lower house and is likely to be quickly ratified at the state level, after which it would take effect. Morena has a majority in 27 of the 32 state legislatures.

That doesn’t sound difficult.

International Business doesn’t look favorably on this reform.

The business community has been shaken by Morena’s blunt use of its new power. The peso has lost more than 15 percent of its value since the June election. Some international businesses have put investments on hold.

The growth and power of the MORENA party is quite impressive. It has only been a political party for ten years, and was founded by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who has been president since 2018 and is now in his last month of office. See my recent article entitled
The Astonishing Growth and Power of Mexico’s MORENA Party.

Back to the WaPo:
The new judicial framework marks a sharp break with the current system, in which most federal judges are named by a professional council that considers their experience and their scores on specialized exams. To fill Supreme Court vacancies, the president has traditionally nominated justices, with Senate approval. Now all those decisions would be turned over to voters, who would select about 7,000 judges, at the federal and local levels, including on the Supreme Court.

Opposition politicians and human rights activists and others say the judicial amendment marks the start of a new era in Mexico in which a dominant party assumes control, snuffing out the democratic gains of the past three decades. Mexico was effectively a one-party state until 2000.

The article is referring to the long era in which the PRI ran Mexico. In the last few decades of the 20th century its power was eroding, and in 1997 it lost a majority in the Cámara de Diputados; and in 2000, it lost the presidency.

Now MORENA is the dominant party in Mexico. And the opposition could not prevent that.

Source: Mexico News Report

Morelos Daily Post