After protesters blocked the entrance to Mexico’s Congress on Tuesday in an attempt to stop a judicial overhaul, lawmakers took the first steps to jam through the proposal at a nearby gymnasium.
The plan would make judges stand for election, something critics say would deal a severe blow to the independence of the judiciary, and the system of checks and balances.
The overhaul has fueled a wave of protests by judges, court employees and students across Mexico in the past few weeks, and reached another inflection point on Tuesday when protesters strung ropes across entrances to the lower house of Congress to block legislators from entering.
Photo: AFP
That came as the Mexican Supreme Court voted 8-3 to join strikes, adding more weight to the protests.
“The party with the majority could take control of the judicial branch, and that would practically be the end of democracy,” said protester Javier Reyes, a 37-year-old federal court worker. “They want to own Mexico.”
Despite that, lawmakers from Mexico’s governing party, Morena, and their allies appeared determined to quickly pass the reform. Unable to meet at the congressional building, they instead gathered in a sweltering gymnasium about 5km away to begin the voting process.
Photo: AFP
The party’s strong majority in a recently inaugurated Congress is paving the way for the reform to sail through the process with relative ease.
The proposal was met by hours of fierce debate on Tuesday night after workers laid out grapes, juices and other snacks in a congressional session reminiscent of a summer camp. As Morena politicians said they were building a justice system that would be an example globally, opposition lawmakers from the National Action Party (PAN) railed on the governing party.
“We should inaugurate a wall of shame that says: ‘Today begins the fall of our Republic.’ And it should have the date and all the faces of the Morena congressmen,” shouted Paulina Rubio Fernandez, a PAN congresswoman, surrounded by other members of her party.
Rubio Fernandez accused the president and his party of “lying” to get a majority in Congress, while another colleague in her party warned that Morena was “shooting itself in the foot” by passing the reform.
Outside, protesters roared, blocking streets and demanding lawmakers hear their objections to the proposal.
The reforms submitted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Morena have drawn criticism domestically, and from foreign governments and investors. Lopez Obrador, who has long been at odds with the judiciary and other independent regulatory agencies, says that the proposal is necessary to fight corruption.
Critics say the overhaul would stack the courts in favor of Lopez Obrador’s party, politicize the judicial system and pose a threat to foreign investment.
Under the current system, judges and court secretaries, who act as judges’ assistants, slowly qualify for higher positions based on their record. Under the proposed changes, any lawyer with minimal qualifications could run.
The Morena party has the two-thirds majority in Congress needed to approve the reforms, which they should be able to do handily in the lower house of Congress.
The party’s congressional leader, Mexican Representative Ricardo Monreal, said there were no plans to abandon the reforms, adding: “This reform is going ahead.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS