Mexican Senate Approves Reform of the Judiciary
Mexican Senate Chamber, Sept. 11, 2024. X/ @epigmenioibarra
September 11, 2024 Hour: 7:44 am
Beginning in 2025, members of the Judicial Branch will be appointed through elections.
In the early hours of Wednesday, after about 12 hours of intense debate, the Mexican Senate approved the reform of the Judicial Branch, which starting in 2025 will allow judges to be elected by popular vote.
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The reform, proposed by the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which involves amending Mexico’s Constitution, was passed with 86 votes in favor from the ruling party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), and its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecologist Green Party (PVEM), and 41 votes against from the opposition parties National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and Citizen Movement (MC).
In a session that ended at the former headquarters of the Mexican Senate, located in the Historic Center of the capital, and heavily guarded by dozens of police officers, the senators from Morena and their allies, along with the opposition, engaged in a broad and heated debate over the controversial reform.
The long session was interrupted in the afternoon by opponents to the judicial reform, who stormed the Senate amidst aggression and shoving in an attempt to halt the approval of the bill. This forced the legislators to relocate to the former headquarters of the upper house to continue the legislative session.
The protesters entered the Senate Chamber, where they shouted slogans and disrupted the ongoing session, which had to be moved to the old Senate building. They also attempted to gain access there, clashing with police officers in the vicinity. The group of protesters identified themselves as workers from the Judicial Branch, who have been on strike for almost three weeks in protest of this reform.
In a last attempt to halt the discussion of the judicial reform, around 10:00 p.m., senators from PRI, PAN, and MC tried to seize the Senate podium, but lawmakers from Morena and their allies blocked them. Once the reform was approved, there will be popular elections and campaigns within the Judicial Branch in 2025, the number of Supreme Court justices will be reduced from 11 to 9, and a Judicial Discipline Tribunal will be established.
President Lopez Obrador sought for the Senate to approve this reform, already endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies last Wednesday, before handing over power on October 1st to Claudia Sheinbaum.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE