Mexican Senate Approves Pres. Obrador's Judicial Reform

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Facts

• Mexico's Senate achieved the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution and pass Pres. Andrés Manuel López Obrador's judicial reform bill on Wednesday.^[1]
• The 86-vote supermajority was reached as opposition senator Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez flipped and sided with the Morena party-led ruling coalition on the reform. Forty-one opposition senators voted against the bill and another was absent.^[2][3]
• This comes as lawmakers were forced to move to an alternative venue to continue the so-called double session that began on Tuesday after protesters stormed the chamber where the debate was taking place chanting 'The judiciary will not fall.'^[4][2]
• The overhaul that would require all federal judges, including the Supreme Court, to be elected must now be ratified by a majority of Mexico's 32 state legislatures. As of Wednesday morning, Oaxaca and Tamaulipas had already done so.^[1][5]
• The changes would also include cutting the number of high court judges from 11 to nine, abolishing the 35-year-old minimum age requirement to be a judge, and cutting the necessary work experience to be a judge from 10 to five years.^[1]
• Those opposed to the law, including judicial workers as well as US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, argue that it will threaten the country's rule of law and economy, particularly related to the North American trade pact.^[6][1]

Sources: ^[1]Al Jazeera, ^[2]Mexico News Daily, ^[3]Guardian, ^[4]BBC News, ^[5]CNN and ^[6]Reuters.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Wilson Center. This legislation represents a long-standing and highly popular belief among the Mexican people. Critics may claim it will threaten judicial independence, but the truth is that wealthy special interests have controlled the courts for many years— blocking popular economic, energy, and corruption legislation. This corrupt status quo is about to end now.
• Narrative B, as provided by Economist. This reform bill can't be described as democratic when the party behind it aims to use it as an authoritarian weapon. The ruling Morena party — the only real beneficiary of this law — wants to centralize control over both the civilian national guard and independent agencies and will use this newfound control over the judiciary to uphold its tyrannical policies.

Predictions