After fourteen hours of a debate marked by insults, a turnaround, an invasion of the chamber by protesters and clashes with the police, the Mexican Senate finally approved, Wednesday, September 11, shortly after midnight, the reform of the federal justice system sought by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as “AMLO”). This includes some criticized measures, such as the dismissal of the 1,690 judges, magistrates and ministers of the Supreme Court, whose replacements will be elected by popular vote.
Before Tuesday’s debates, AMLO’s Morena party was one vote short of the two-thirds majority in the Upper House needed for the constitutional reform to be approved. While the opposition united against the text, a senator from the right-wing National Action Party defected at the last minute. The Mexican press revealed that He had negotiated his vote in exchange for the withdrawal of judicial instructions issued against him and his family for alleged cases of corruption and illicit enrichment, a version that “AMLO” denied. His change of attitude allowed the project to be adopted.
The legislative “steamroller”
Since its victory in the general elections on June 2, the Morena party already had two-thirds of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as 27 of Mexico’s 32 local parliaments. This legislative “steamroller” now allows the president, who will hand over power to his elected successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, on June 1.Ahem October, to shape the Constitution as he wishes.
In the days leading up to the Senate debate, opposition parties claimed their lawmakers were victims of “threats” either “blackmail” Morena to change their vote. The session took place in an electric atmosphere. Senators from both sides burst into tears with cries of “traitors to the homeland”, “Judas”, “fascists” or “trash”until a group of students and employees of the judiciary – on strike since August 19 – invaded the chamber. In the midst of the chaos, one senator got gasoline in his eyes. The president of the Senate suspended the session and moved the discussion to another building. The demonstrators followed the cohort of legislators, but clashed with riot police. Opposition senators then took to the platform, without managing to suspend the session or prevent the adoption of the text.
The government claims that its reform will clean up the judiciary, which it considers rife with corruption, nepotism and conflicts of interest. The charismatic president often accuses judges and ministers of the Supreme Court of conspiring with his adversaries to stop his decisions. “AMLO,” whose popularity reached 65% after six years in office, was keen to see the reform approved before passing the baton to Claudia Sheinbaum. He applauded the adoption of the text, believing that it will build “a true democracy and a true rule of law.”
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