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.”
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS