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Thousands protest Mexico’s Senate judicial reform approval

Mexico City, Mexico — Mexico’s Senate has approved President López Obrador’s reform of the Judicial Branch after hours of debate and a change of venue. The delay was caused by the thousands of protestors in the streets, dozens of which stormed the building Tuesday night.

After nearly 12 hours, the reform was approved with 86 votes in favor of and 41 against, which will now be referred to State Congress. The reform, which needs to be approved by Congress to become law, is one of the most controversial reforms of recent years.

Dozens of protestors stormed the building Tuesday night.

If approved, the new law would mean the election of ministers, judges and magistrates through popular vote. The reform approval came after Morena and its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), achieved a qualified majority, two-thirds of the Senate.

In a press conference afterward, the President of the Senate Board of Directors, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, said the next step is for each of the state Congresses to analyze, discuss and vote for or against the judicial reform initiative. For this proposal to move forward and become official, 17 of the 32 state Congresses must vote in favor of it.

The main points of the proposal establish that federal judges and ministers of the Supreme Court of the Nation (SCJN) must be elected by popular vote. The reform also supports reducing the number of Supreme Court justices from 11 to 9 and reducing their term of office from 15 to 12 years.

Mexico’s Senate passed the reform proposal September 10, 2024.

Another of the points established in the reform of the Judicial Branch involves holding two elections to renew the positions within that Branch of the State. The first of these would be extraordinary and would take place next June, while the second election would take place in 2027.

Opposition members say that López Obrador’s proposed judicial reform is a maneuver to take control of the judiciary, the only body that could prevent Morena and its allies from reforming the Constitution after their landslide victory in the 2024 elections.

On Tuesday morning ahead of the Senate meeting, López Obrador defended his reform proposal saying “when judges, magistrates, and ministers are elected (by the citizens), they will have to act with integrity.

Police are seen in riot gear during Senate protests in Mexico City Tuesday night.

“They will have the people of Mexico as their leader, the people who are sovereign in a republic. (…) The judge will now have a different behavior because he will not feel influential or a product of influence or nepotism, but will be there, in that position, by the will of the citizens and he will feel free to be able to impart justice, he will not have commitments to anyone.”

During his Tuesday morning press conference, he said those who are against judicial reform do so because they protect the interests and privileges obtained during the neoliberal period.

Thousands stormed the streets of Mexico City in protest. Photos: September 10, 2024.

López Obrador stated that the discussion on the reform of the Judicial Branch exposes to public opinion the anomalies and irregular procedures in which judges, magistrates and ministers incur.

“It is an issue that was not touched before, it was a forbidden topic, everything related to the Judicial Branch was in limbo. (…) I already spoke about how we have been cleaning up the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, but we came across the Judicial Branch, which is very important because it is the power in charge of administering justice and ensuring that the Constitution and the laws are respected,” he said.

“In our country, as part of the crisis and the decline, we have reached the point where this power has become the protector of the mafias of economic power and political power. So, the Executive Branch is being cleaned of corruption, the Legislative Branch is being cleaned, but the Judicial Branch needs to be cleaned up because it is in bad shape,” he added.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez says there are nearly 24,000 imprisoned in Mexico without being sentenced.
Photo: AMLO September 10, 2024.

The Secretary of Public Safety and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, reported that corruption in the Judiciary keeps nearly 24,000 people incarcerated and without a sentence.

Of those, she said 1,326 face pending federal proceedings of between five and 10 years, 2,488 report trials of ten to 15 years, 767 have a process of 15 to 20 years and 232 people deprived of liberty have been in a federal prison for more than 20 years without obtaining a resolution.