Thousands of judicial workers and judges have gone on strike this week in Mexico, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, seeks to advance a massive overhaul of the country’s courts.
At the core of the proposed reforms is a controversial plan to elect federal judges — including Supreme Court appointees and electoral magistrates — by popular vote. Lopez Obrador has said the change is needed to root out corruption.
But critics see the move as the latest salvo in the ongoing tensions between Lopez Obrador and the judiciary.
Experts like Julio Rios Figueroa, a law professor at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City, warn that the reforms could eat away at the government’s checks and balances, not to mention destabilise the justice system.
“It will create administrative chaos and uncertainty in many areas,” Rios Figueroa told media. “It will also end judicial independence and judicial autonomy in Mexico.”
He also warned that the reforms may allow Lopez Obrador’s Morena party to wield undue influence over the legal system.
After its sweep of the June 2 general elections, the Morena party has led a major push to pass constitutional changes before Lopez Obrador’s term expires at the end of September.
He is set to be succeeded by president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, a Morena official who won the presidency with more votes than any candidate in Mexican history. That consolidation of power within the Morena party has some observers nervous about the continued independence of the judiciary.
“Electoral democracy is at stake in Mexico,” Rios Figueroa said.
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