Federal judges across Mexico voted yesterday to go on strike starting tomorrow in protest of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s proposed overhaul of the federal judicial system. Thousands of other court employees also began a strike yesterday protesting the plan. (New York Times)
Our Take
The proposed judicial reforms are just the latest effort by AMLO, as he is called, to roll back some of Mexico’s democratic checks and balances. Among other changes, the reforms would see all of the country’s federal judges, including those on the Supreme Court, elected rather than appointed. AMLO argues the change would reduce corruption in the judiciary and return more democratic power to the people.
But critics argue the move is meant to reduce checks on the executive branch by politicizing the judiciary. And considering that AMLO’s Morena party is currently an electoral juggernaut, he could use judicial elections to install judges that will give his party greater power in the coming years, undermining the country’s democracy even more.