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Mexican lawmakers postpone decision on judicial reform

Mexican lawmakers have postponed the approval of sweeping justice reforms until next year, delaying Mexican President Felipe Calderon's efforts to boost police powers in the fight against violent drug gangs.

The Senate approved Calderon's proposal late on Thursday, but made minor changes that meant the bill had to be sent back to the lower house.

The lower house had passed the bill the day before, but Thursday was the last session of Congress before a recess until February.

The proposal would allow police to hold organized crime suspects for up to 80 days without formal charges, which could result in more drug traffickers being convicted and imprisoned. Judges would have to authorize such extended detentions.

A year-old army crackdown on Mexican drug cartels has put hundreds of suspected smugglers in jail, but some have walked free because prosecutors did not have enough time to build a good case, lawmakers said.

Senators modified the version passed by the lower house to restrict police powers to enter homes without a warrant.

Critics of the bill have said it goes too far and would violate civil liberties.

The bill would also phase in oral trials. Currently, lawyers present evidence largely in written form in a secretive process that critics say fuels corruption.

Fighting drug cartels, whose turf wars have caused the deaths of at least 2,350 people this year, has been Calderon's top priority since he took office a year ago.

The measure has evoked both praise and alarm among legal experts and human rights activists.

For years, activists had called for profound reforms in a system widely considered outdated, dysfunctional and unfair. But new police powers have raised comparisons to the Patriot Act, which gave the US government broad leeway to pursue suspected terrorists at the expense of constitutional protections.

The constitutional changes must also be approved by 16 of Mexico's 31 states before Calderon can sign it into law.

Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, had failed to get his own judicial reform through an adversarial Congress three years ago.

This time, consensus replaced conflict as lawmakers and civilian activist groups took the lead in constructing a law that also incorporates the more controversial provisions proposed by Calderon.

The result: For the first time in history, the presumption of innocence will be guaranteed in Mexico's Constitution.

The changes do not include trial by jury, but oral public trials, already in place in some states, will go nationwide, replacing corruption-tainted, closed-door proceedings where judges depend mostly on written evidence and defendants cannot confront their accusers.
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