Mexico: Controversial law to directly elect all judges ratified

 

As announced by the outgoing president Lopez Obrador


The outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ratified yesterday Sunday, the day of Mexico's national holiday, the controversial and unique law on a global scale that provides for the direct election of all judges and prosecutors by "popular vote", the which has caused intense concern in the US, investors and the judiciary.

"I signed the decree to publicize the revision of the Constitution with the aim of improving the judiciary," President López Obrador said in a taped message.



In the video, the head of state is shown signing the text, flanked by his successor Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office on October 1, after winning the June 2 election with 60% of the vote.

Both belong to the Movement for National Renaissance (MORENA), which secured a two-thirds supermajority in the House and almost in the Senate, which allowed the rapid adoption of the revision of the fundamental law.

"We need justice to work for all, there should be no corruption in the judiciary, judges, magistrates, members of the supreme court should apply to the letter the principle that no one is outside the law, no one is above it. of law," said the outgoing president.

He called for a "true rule of law" by signing the decree on the day Mexico celebrated its independence.

"They say we lived in a democracy, but no. An oligarchy ruled," he argued.

But now things "are different", as it will be "the people" who "will command, decide", he insisted.

In the evening the president — who is leaving office with his popularity at a record level of almost 70% — was due to deliver the final independence "hymn" of his term in front of a crowd in Sokalo, the capital's central square, a ritual that evokes at the beginning of the march to independence in 1810.

Washington called this legislation a "danger" and a "threat" to the bilateral trade relationship.

Nearly 7,000 judicial officers, including about 1,600 federal judges, are now expected to be elected in 2025 and 2027. Judicial reform reduces the number of members of the supreme court from 11 to 9 and their terms of office from 15 to 12 years.

Opponents of the reform stormed the Senate last week to block its approval by the chamber, but the session continued in the old seat of the upper house. The opposition continues to react, calling the outgoing president a "dictator".

Beyond Washington and MORENA's opponents, reform of the judicial system also worries many businessmen, at a time when the economy is already gasping for air — the forecast for growth was revised in hand for 2024, from 2.4 to 1.5 % of GDP, the stock market fell 2.8% in August, the peso fell against the dollar.

The reform "threatens the historic trade relationship we have built, which is based on investor confidence in Mexico's legal framework," commented the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, a confidant of President Joe Biden, a former member of the US Senate and administration of Barack Obama.

In 2023, Mexico became the largest trading partner of the US, surpassing China.

The twelfth largest economy in the world, Mexico, is also affected by the violence of organized crime.

In the country where around 30,000 murders are committed each year, justice is now paralyzed, plagued by almost total inefficiency, according to the NGO Impunidad Cero ("Impunity Zero"): "out of 100 criminal offenses, only 6.4 are prosecuted , of which 14% is explained. This means that the probability of solving any crime in our country does not exceed 0.9%".