Mexican senators pass judicial reform
Sept. 11, 2024
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s controversial judicial reform passed in a marathon Senate session last night. Senators voted 86 to 41 — one absence in the chamber gave the ruling Morena party a super majority to pass constitutional reform. (Aristegui Noticias, El País)
It is a major win for the outgoing president in his final month in office. (Reuters) The legislation must now be ratified by the legislatures of at least 17 of Mexico’s 32 states. Morena has a majority in 27 of the 32 state legislatures, so ratification is expected. (Washington Post) Oaxaca’s legislature became the first to ratify it just hours after the Senate’s approval, reports the Associated Press.
It was a dramatic session, marked by accusations of illegal pressure and arm-twisting: The senators were forced to relocate to an alternative building, as heated protests by judicial workers interrupted the session — similar to what occurred last week when the Chamber of Deputies approved the reform. (Animal Político, Animal Político)
The swing vote — Morena and allies are one short of a supermajority in the Senate — came from PAN lawmaker Miguel Ángel Yunes, accused by his party of being a traitor after he decided to support the reform that will make all the country’s federal judges elected positions. Yunes was initially absent due to medical issues, but left the hospital and joined fellow senators in time to cast a decisive vote. (Animal Político, El País)
Senator Daniel Barreda was absent because his father was arrested — his Movimiento Ciudadano party had initially announced that Barreda himself was also detained and said Barreda’s father’s detention was aimed at tilting the senate vote. (Animal Político)
The bill has sparked fierce pushback from Mexico’s judicial sector, which has been on strike for three weeks. The proposal has created a schism within the country’s Supreme Court — three judges named by the outgoing leader support the government’s plan, while another group, led by Justice Norma Piña, have supported a judicial strike against the move, reports El País.
It has also been opposed by the business community and from international allies, namely the U.S. and Canada. “The peso has lost more than 15 percent of its value since the June election. Some international businesses have put investments on hold,” reports the Washington Post.
“The proposed measure could produce one of the most far-reaching judicial overhauls of any major democracy,” according to the New York Times.
But, “the virulence of the debate, coupled with the speed and seeming corruption with which this crucial reform has been pushed through, has distracted from what it is really about,” warns Alex González Ormerod in the Mexican Political Economist: “At its core the reform tries to address the judicial branches’ perceived unresponsiveness to citizens’ needs by inserting their voice into the system via the ballot. Critics of the current system have accused the judiciary of becoming akin to a private club where judges are just responsive to private interests, including organised crime.”
Experts say the reform will not address the systemic problems that afflict the country’s judiciary — including the general impunity rate that is above 90 percent and a toothless disciplinary system that hasn’t meted out significant punishment in decades, even in response to corruption and sexual violence.
Over the course of the debate over the reform, there has been increasing recognition, even among critics, that some sort of overhaul is necessary.
While the elections would be a technical headache, and would put the final selection of judges in public hands, it’s important to note that getting on the ballot itself involves being nominated by committees from one of the three powers of government (executive, legislative and judicial), who will only receive applications from candidates who fulfill pre-requisites. Their longlists will be whittled down through a lottery, notes González. (Mexico Political Economist)
More Mexico
Shootouts Mexico’s Sinaloa state have kindled fears that an intra-cartel war is about to break out in the wake of the arrest of kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, in July. (Reuters)
Bolivia
Bolivia’s experience in voting judges should be a warning for Mexico. “It has been an abject failure. It has eroded not only the judiciary’s legitimacy and independence but also the country’s rule of law and its political stability,” writes Raúl Peñaranda U. in Americas Quarterly.
Regional Relations
Haitians in Haiti and the U.S., have blasted lies, propagated by Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans, that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating local wildlife and their neighbors’ pets in Ohio. Leslie Voltaire, a member of Haiti’s ruling Transitional Presidential Council, called it “deeply troubling.” Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, in a social media post on X, responded by sharing a quote from African-American author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison about racism being a distraction. (Miami Herald)
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, the El Salvador Caucus, formed this year with the apparent goal of boosting Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s image, and “also to drive the agenda of the Bukele government within the United States,” according to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. (Nacla)
Regional
Mauricio Cárdenas and Eduardo Levy Yeyati imagine how a centrist revival could take place in Latin American politics: “A critical starting point to revive the center is to promote a new breed of politicians willing to break with the practices of corruption, nepotism and clientelism that have for so long characterized Latin America politics. The new center cannot be a recycling of insiders masqueraded as a transformation. The goal should not be to resuscitate the center but to reinvent it.” (Americas Quarterly)
Venezuela
Following the sudden exile of opposition leader Edmundo González, who appears to have won Venezuela’s presidential election by a landslide, and the failure of diplomatic efforts to negotiate a transition, analysts increasingly believe that Nicolás Maduro will remain in power, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday’s briefs and Monday’s post.)
The New York Times spoke to several election volunteers for Venezuela’s opposition party who contributed proof that González defeated Maduro in the July vote. They fled the country after facing death threats from Maduro’s supporters.
Brazil
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Amazonia state and expressed concern over intense drought and the often criminally set fires that are consuming three of Brazil’s six biomes: the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Pantanal wetlands, reports the Guardian.
“Brazil is already an important and reliable breadbasket for the world. But to help create a more resilient and sustainable food system for the future, Brazil must strategically prepare its domestic capabilities to meet the projected demands of 2050—and it should do so in partnership with the private sector and the international community,” according to a new Atlantic Council Issue Brief.
Chile
Today is the anniversary of the 1973 military coup against Salvador Allende in Chile. The Partido Repúblicano, José Antonio Kast’s far-right party, saluted the armed forces, saying they saved the country from “a Marxist tyranny.” (La Tercera)
Ecuador
“Private security companies have surged in Ecuador as crime has intensified, but mounting evidence of criminal infiltration in the industry suggests that it may be servicing criminals as much as the private sector and the government,” reports InSight Crime.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa sent his vice president, Verónica Abad, to Turkey, where she is forbidden from discussing Ecuadorean internal politics. The transfer follows her posting as a peace mediator to Israel, part of efforts to force her to quit her post, according to Abad. (El País)
Culture Corner
“Socialist Cuba, the birthplace of salsa and other rhythms that have conquered the world, is now surrendering to the invasion of South Korean pop music,” reports the Associated Press.
Peruvian photographer Víctor Zea Díaz created a series of family portraits in the Miraflores community in Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve, where a shrinking population is restoring and reviving their ancestor’s water management systems. (Guardian)
Congratulations to Mexico !