(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s Supreme Court justices went on strike to protest President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s proposed reform of the judicial system while demonstrations against the controversial plan delayed its debate in congress by a few hours.
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The strike was approved by eight votes in favor and three against, the top court said in a statement Tuesday. The court will continue to address urgent matters and the justices will review their position on Sept. 9.
If Lopez Obrador’s reform is approved by congress, all of the country’s judges will be elected by popular vote, including those on the Supreme Court. Critics say the change would weaken the country’s democracy by allowing the ruling coalition to take control of all three branches of power at the same time.
The proposal is still being discussed at the lower house, where the ruling Morena party and its allies hold more than a two-thirds majority. The session was briefly transferred to a sports center after demonstrators shut down access to the legislature. They started gathering outside the venue where lawmakers were meeting, blocking a major highway in Mexico City, El Financiero reported.
Although the strikes that began last month are nationwide, they haven’t fully paralyzed judicial proceedings as staff on duty continued to carry out urgent tasks, said Judge Juana Fuentes Velazquez, head of JUFED, one of Mexico’s main associations of judicial workers.
If approved in the lower house, AMLO’s proposal will then move to the senate, where the governing coalition only needs one more vote to reach the supermajority required to pass it. The discussion in the senate could happen as soon as Thursday.
Backlash From Judges
AMLO, who has long claimed that Mexico’s courts are corrupt, wants the overhaul to be approved by congress before his term ends in late September.
The reform has drawn backlash not only from Mexico’s judges and opposition, but also investors and the US, who say it will undermine judicial independence and eliminate checks and balances on the government’s power.
Later on Tuesday, the opposition decided to participate in the debate of the bill. It opposed the use of an alternative building, but that didn’t stop the session that continued to take place at the sports venue.
“What we are experiencing is the destruction of one of the country’s three powers,” Julen Rementeria, a lawmaker from the PAN party, said in a phone interview. “They say they want to elect judges by popular vote but that’s a lie, because they will only elect those proposed by Morena,”
–With assistance from Cyntia Barrera Diaz.
(Updates with Supreme Court statement in second paragraph, and comment from opposition lawmaker in last two paragraphs.)
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