Politicians flee as demonstrators surge into the Senate crying ‘traitors’ at the outgoing president’s ‘dangerous’ judicial reforms.
Hundreds of angry protesters invaded Mexico’s Senate during a debate over controversial plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary on Tuesday.
Politicians were forced to move to a former Senate building after demonstrators stormed the upper house and entered the chamber waving Mexican flags, crying “traitors” and chanting that “the judiciary will not fall”.
They were demonstrating against plans to make all judges elected, which critics have said would threaten judicial independence and undermine the system of checks and balances.
The reform plan has sparked mass demonstrations, diplomatic tensions and caution from investors in recent weeks. Opponents have included court employees and law students.
Pipes and chains were used to break down the door to the Senate chamber. Once inside, the protesters were joined by several opposition senators.
Among the demonstrators was Alejandro Navarrete, 30, a judicial worker, who said people like him working in the courts know “the danger the reform represents”.
“They have decided to sell out the nation, and sell out for political capital they were offered, we felt obligated to enter the Senate,” he said.
“Our intention is not violent, we didn’t intend to hurt them but we intend to make it clear that the Mexican people won’t allow them to lead us into a dictatorship.”
The Senate finally approved the reform proposed by outgoing President Obrador on Wednesday with 86 votes in favour and 41 against, making Mexico the world’s only country to elect all of its judges.
Obrador has argued that Mexico’s current system serves the interests of the political and economic elite and has called the judiciary “rotten”, corrupt and rife with nepotism.
Under the reforms about 1,600 judges would have to stand for election in 2025 or 2027.
The Senate will now move to debate reservations raised by politicians before giving final approval to the reform proposed.
Norma Pina, the Supreme Court chief justice, warned that elected judges were more vulnerable to pressure from criminals — it is not uncommon in Mexico for powerful drug cartels to use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.
“The demolition of the judiciary is not the way forward,” she said in a video released on Sunday.
Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said Mexico was proposing a system used nowhere else.
“In some countries, such as the US, some state judges are elected, and in others, such as in Bolivia, high-level judges are elected. If this reform passes, it will place Mexico in a unique position in terms of its method for judicial selection,” Satterthwaite said.
Mexico’s peso has weakened 17 per cent since the June 2 elections when Morena, the ruling party, won by a landslide and the United States and Canada, its major trading partners, have warned the overhaul could undermine the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact and harm investment.
Ken Salazar, the US ambassador, called the overhaul a “risk” to democracy and an economic threat.
First written and published by Joshua Thurston
Wednesday September 11 2024, 10.10am BST, The Times