Why everyone is suddenly worried about Mexico’s democracy
President Andres Manuel López Obrador, in his final month in office, is pushing legislation that would send appointed federal judges home and let voters elect their replacements.
MEXICO CITY — The lower house of Mexico’s Congress approved a radical reform of the judicial system on Wednesday — a constitutional amendment that has raised alarms in Washington and in the business community.
Under the new system, voters would choose nearly all the country’s judges, even those on the Supreme Court.
The Biden administration, legal scholars and business groups warn that the reform could undermine Mexico’s young democracy and damage its economic partnership with the United States.
Deputy Ricardo Monreal, center, celebrates the legislation’s passage Wednesday in Mexico City’s Sala de Armas. (Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP/Getty Images)
Critics are especially concerned because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party holds an overwhelming majority in Congress. If voters were to elect judges friendly to Morena, the leftist party would effectively control all three branches of government. That could return Mexico to a one-party state of the kind that ruled for much of the 20th century.
The proposal, passed early Wednesday by Mexico’s House of Deputies, now goes to its Senate, which is also expected to approve it. Here’s what to know about the change.
Mexican voters would elect Supreme Court justices
At present, the judicial system itself names most federal judges, based on experience, qualifications and exam results.
If the reform package wins approval, nearly all federal judges will be required to resign in the next three years. Mexican voters would pick new judges from candidates nominated by the presidency, the Congress and the judicial branch. They would choose 1,686 federal judges, including nine Supreme Court justices, in elections next year and in 2027. Another 5,000 state and local judges would also be elected by popular vote.
The reform would do away with tenure and experience requirements. It would set nine-year terms for judges.
Critics warn that elected judges could pander to voters
The reform will likely weaken judicial independence, legal analysts say. Judges who rely on popular support could be tempted to tailor their decisions to please voters, rather than upholding the law impartially. Interest groups from business executives to drug traffickers could try to curry favor by contributing to judges’ campaigns. Given the ruling party’s strong hand in choosing candidates, newly elected judges might also be overwhelmingly sympathetic to Morena, eroding checks and balances. The new system could violate international human rights standards aimed at ensuring everyone receives a fair hearing before the courts.
For investors, changes would introduce unwelcome uncertainty
Mexico and the United States are each other’s top trading partners. U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar warned that the overhaul could reduce investors’ confidence in Mexico’s legal system and “threaten the historic trade relationship we have built.” Business organizations say it comes at the wrong time — just as Mexico is trying to capitalize on the post-pandemic trend of nearshoring.
Financial markets already have reacted nervously to Morena’s overwhelming victory in June elections. It now has the congressional majorities it needs to pass a host of far-reaching measures, including the elimination of key government watchdog agencies. Since the election, the normally strong peso has lost more than 10 percent of its value.
López Obrador says elected judges will be more accountable
The president, whose six-year term ends next month, is angry at the Supreme Court and federal judges for striking down some of his most ambitious plans. They’ve blocked his efforts to expand the government’s role in the electricity sector, and hand control of the nominally civilian national guard to the army. López Obrador said in June that the judiciary “has been kidnapped, and is at the service of a minority” — the wealthy. Elected judges, he says, will be more accountable to the population.
Before the June election, the president lacked the congressional supermajorities needed to change Mexico’s constitution. The new legislature opened on Sunday, giving López Obrador four weeks to execute his plans before he turns the presidency over to his protégé, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Few doubt Mexico’s justice system could use a fix
Many legal scholars and human-rights groups agree the weak, ineffective justice system could use a reform. But they say the direct election of judges won’t get at the root of the problem: underfunding, inadequate training and corruption.
Mexico’s judges have gone on strike to protest the reform; even Supreme Court justices have suspended their activities. Student protesters have thronged the main avenues of Mexico City. Demonstrators blocked the entrances of the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday, forcing lawmakers to convene in a gym three miles away.
Americans elect judges, too
In 39 U.S. states, citizens elect at least some judges. But they’re state and local judges — not federal. And many American trials are decided by a jury, rather than a judge, as is typically the case in Mexico.
In the United States, too, the direct election of judges has been criticized. The American Bar Association has warned of the “corrosive effect of money” in judicial campaigns. Candidates, critics warn, could seek donations from the very groups whose cases they will eventually hear, leading to bias.
