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.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS