BajaNomad - 9-13-2024 at 05:11 PM
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 7:10 PM PDT, September 12, 2024
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is poised to amend its constitution this weekend to require all judges to be elected as part of a judicial overhaul
championed by the outgoing president but slammed by critics as a blow to the country’s rule of law.
The amendment passed Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday, and by Thursday it already had been ratified by the required majority of the country’s 32
state legislatures. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would sign and publish the constitutional change on Sunday.
Legal experts and international observers have said the move could endanger Mexico’s democracy by stacking courts with judges loyal to the ruling
Morena party, which has a strong grip on both Congress and the presidency after big electoral wins in June.
López Obrador says the overhaul would crack down on corruption in a system that most Mexicans agree is broken. But critics believe the move will deal
a blow to checks and balances and make it easier for cartels and criminals to influence the courts.
The overhaul has fueled weeks of strikes and protests by judicial employees, law students and many other Mexicans.
On Wednesday, it crossed its biggest hurdle by passing Mexico’s Senate. Angry protesters stormed the chambers Tuesday in a last ditch effort to
block the proposal, but senators moved to another location and passed the measure in the early morning after hours of verbal sparring.
As of Thursday, 18 legislatures already had ratified the overhaul.
López Obrador said he would time his signing of the measure for Sunday’s celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day. The event will allow the
populist leader to solidify the judicial transformation as his legacy, just weeks before he leaves office on Sept. 30.
“With now 18 approving it, well, now it’s legal,” López Obrador said during in a morning news briefing on Thursday.
“It’s an incredibly important reform, reaffirming that in Mexico there is authentic democracy. The people electing their representatives, electing
their public servants in all three branches, that is democracy,” he said.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
https://apnews.com/article/president-andres-manuel-lopez-obr...
Will Electing Judges Make Mexico’s Courts Better, or More Political?
BajaNomad - 9-13-2024 at 05:20 PM
A sweeping change would have thousands of judges, from local courtrooms all the way up to the Supreme Court, elected instead of appointed.
By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and James Wagner
Reporting from Mexico City
Sept. 12, 2024
A landmark shift unfolded in Mexico on Thursday as a majority of its 32 states approved an overhaul of the country’s judicial system. In a
monumental change, thousands of judges would be elected instead of appointed, from local courtrooms to the Supreme Court.
The measure could produce one of the most far-reaching judicial overhauls of any major democracy and has already provoked deep division in Mexico.
Nevertheless, the legislation’s passage into law was practically a foregone conclusion by Thursday as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
announced his intent to publish the bill on Sunday, on the eve of Mexico’s Independence Day.
“It is a very important reform,” Mr. López Obrador, whose six-year tenure ends at the end of the month, said during his daily news conference.
“It’s reaffirming that in Mexico there is an authentic democracy where the people elect their representatives.”
The departing president and his Morena party have championed remaking the court system as a way to curtail graft, influence-peddling and nepotism and
to give Mexicans a greater voice. Mr. López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, will take office on Oct. 1 and has fully backed the plan.
But court workers, judges, legal scholars and opposition leaders argue that it would inadequately address issues such as corruption and instead
bolster Mr. López Obrador’s political movement.
Here’s what to know about the sweeping measure.
Why do some Mexicans support the election of judges?
Mexico’s justice system, like other branches of government, has long been plagued by graft and other problems. According to government surveys, 66
percent of Mexicans perceive judges to be corrupt — though official data on how many of them have been punished for corruption is scarce.
In the United States, where voters elect judges in many states, some judges say that judicial appointments can be easily controlled by political whims
and that elections can even help increase diversity in the judiciaries. Research suggests, however, that inadequate diversity is an issue both when
judges are elected and when they are appointed.
Proponents of the plan say it would reduce corruption and give voters a greater role in a justice system widely regarded as broken. Mr. López Obrador
has said that elections would prevent judges from ruling in favor of powerful people to secure favors from them.
“The judge will have a different behavior,” he told reporters this week. “He will be there in that position by the will of the citizens, and
will feel free to impart justice — he will have no commitments to anyone.”
There is also the issue of nepotism, which both supporters and opponents of the overhaul agree is a major problem in the court system. A recent
assessment found that about 37 percent of judicial officials had at least one family member working in the judiciary (a drop of about 12 percentage
points from 2021).
A system in which judges are elected, proponents say, would make it harder for judges to obtain positions in the judiciary through relatives. Instead,
they would have to demonstrate their qualifications to voters. Most of the family relationships within the judiciary, however, involve court workers,
not judges, who would not be elected.
Finally, the overhaul would sever the judiciary from its oversight body, the Federal Judicial Council. As of now, the head of that council — which,
among other duties, appoints federal judges and penalizes them — is also the chief justice of the Supreme Court. That makes the workload impossible,
experts say, and it also introduces bias.
“When you have someone who does both roles, inevitably there’s a conflict of interest,” said Sergio López Ayllón, a law professor who has
advised institutions such as the Mexican Senate and the Supreme Court.
As an example, Mr. López Ayllón offered Arturo Zaldívar, a former chief of justice and president of the Judicial Council, who earlier this year was
accused of using his position to remove and intimidate judges who did not rule the way he wanted. Mr. Zaldívar, who is being investigated by the
Supreme Court, has denied the accusations.
Why do others in Mexico oppose the election of judges?
The biggest fears among experts and some citizens is that in the overhaul, judicial independence would be lost and the courts would become highly
politicized. Since the measure eliminates the many requirements to become a judge, critics fear that it will open the way for people with only a law
degree and a few years of legal experience to run for office.
This is particularly relevant in the district courts, for example, where under the current system prospective judges are appointed after undergoing a
series of “very difficult” tests required for a spot, said Adriana García, an expert adviser to Stanford Law School’s Rule of Law Impact lab.
“We’re going from one moment where we’re choosing them based on their merits and abilities to one where we’re choosing based on popularity,”
she said.
If one political party controls key branches of government, as Morena does now, the choices of judicial candidates might skew in favor of the
party’s interests, critics say. Nominees for top judicial positions could emerge as little more than loyal allies, compromising the impartiality of
the courts.
Opponents to the overhaul have also expressed alarm that political parties and illicit funds, including from organized crime groups, would influence
the elections.
While the plan prohibits public or private financing of judicial campaigns and bars political parties and public officials from stumping for
candidates, Ms. García said this would be difficult to enforce and worried that those with “the most money and most power will put forth their
judge.”
Voters would also have the daunting task of getting to know all the candidates. The changes would apply to the 11 justices currently on the Supreme
Court, to 1,635 federal judges and magistrates and to more than 5,700 judges at the state and local levels. An average voter might have to sift
through anywhere from hundreds to thousands of candidates.
Experts and citizens alike are concerned that the sheer volume of candidates would overwhelm voters who often have limited information about the
candidates on the ballot. There’s also growing worry that voting participation could plummet, with citizens either too confused or too disengaged to
make an informed choice.
What happens next?
Now that most state legislatures have passed the bill, the lower house of Congress will send it to Mr. López Obrador, and he is expected to publish
it in the government’s official gazette. He said he intended to do so on Sunday, a day before Mexico’s Independence Day.
Congress can then make adjustments to federal laws as required by the overhaul, such as eliminating funds for the retirement of justices. The Senate
would then issue a call for candidates for the thousands of judgeships nationwide. And Mexico’s electoral agency would have to start organizing the
judicial elections. At some point, state legislatures would modify their local constitutions.
The plan is for voters next June to elect all the Supreme Court justices, whose number would be reduced to nine; members of the newly created
Disciplinary Tribunal; and about half of the country’s 7,000 judges, with the rest elected in 2027. It is an undertaking that already has been
called unrealistic.
“Judicial geography is not the same as electoral geography; ballots have never had so many names before,” said Carla Humphrey, a member of the
National Electoral Institute’s governing council.
Some critics of the overhaul had hoped that when Ms. Sheinbaum, who won the presidency in a landslide in June, would replace Mr. López Obrador next
month, she would moderate or slow the sweeping changes to the court system. But she has so far shown no intention to do so.
“There is no possibility of reversing the reform,” Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters this month. “That was the decision of the people of Mexico.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/world/americas/mexico-ele...
[Edited on 9-14-2024 by BajaNomad]
Duncan Wood: Mexico’s judicial system reforms will send shock waves across the border
BajaNomad - 9-13-2024 at 05:27 PM
The judicial system in Mexico will become more highly politicized under sweeping reforms ushered in by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,
predicts international relations and policy expert Duncan Wood.
BY ANTONIO VINDELL
SEPTEMBER 13, 2024
HARLINGEN, TEXAS – The approval by the Mexican Congress of sweeping judicial system reforms is going to send shock waves across the United States,
an expert on bilateral relations said.
Duncan Wood, an Englishman with more than 35 years of international relations and policy experience, predicted as much during a presentation on the
impact recent Mexican policy changes, its current president and its president-elect.
“This is pivotal moment in Mexico,” he said. “Mexico matters in a way most people in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles don’t know about.”
Wood, president and CEO of the Pacific Council on International Policy, said a strong, healthy and vibrant Mexican economy is good for both counties,
adding that in 2023 Mexico became the U.S.’s largest trading partner.
As to its political system, he said Mexico has had a populist streak under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO. He said AMLO’s
administration has been handing down money to the poor and handpicking one politician after another, including President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum who
will take over on Oct. 1 for a six-year term.
Duncan Wood described AMLO as a master politician who sees himself as Mexico’s Messiah.
He asked himself if Sheinbaum will do what “her jefe,” says or will she be herself?
Wood doubts AMLO will retire to his ranch as he been saying.
On the other hand, he said Sheinbaum is further to left and more nationalistic that the current president.
Following the June 2 presidential election, Wood said the Mexican peso has been losing its value against the U.S. dollar and millions of dollars held
in private hands have been leaving the country.
He said this week’s approval by the Mexican Congress of a new judicial system is going to have an impact on trade between the two counties.
“I think it is going to be a shock,” Wood said in an interview before a presentation held Thursday, Sept. 12, at the Harlingen Convention Center
that was hosted by the RGV Partnership and Texas Regional Bank. “This is going to cause concern for the review clause of 2026.”
He was referring to a U.S. proposal in the United States, Mexico and Canada negotiations on free trade intended to bring security and predictability
between the parties.
Wood said the judicial system reform is going to radically transform how more of Mexico’s 7,000 judges, magistrates and others that are now
appointed will sit on the benches.
They will be candidates of the party in power, rather than elected by the people.
Therefore, he predicted, the judicial system will to become highly politicized.
“We are deeply worried. We are deeply concerned,” he said politicians and investors from all over the United States are now saying. “I am also
deeply concerned.”
Wood said AMLO is responsible for the approval of an initiative that calls for removing a president half way through his or her term, meaning he could
take the seat again.
He said he wishes he could bring better news and added not everything has been lost as people can express their view, write letters and get involved
in the process.
Lizzy De La Guerra Putegnat, a member of the audience, asked Wood if today’s Mexican leaders want to turn the county into another Venezuela.
He said he didn’t think so.
Oscar Campos, CEO of the Harlingen Economic Development Corp., said Wood’s presentation was very informative, and also interesting.
https://riograndeguardian.com/wood-mexicos-judicial-system-r...
Reform or the End of Justice? Mexico Is Split on Plan to Elect Judges.
BajaNomad - 9-13-2024 at 05:47 PM
Even as a sweeping proposal to elect nearly 7,000 judges inches toward law, some Mexicans have protested it. Others welcomed the chance to vote in
judges.
By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and James Wagner
Reporting from Mexico City
Sept. 12, 2024
Outside Mexico’s Senate building on Tuesday, university students wearing masks and dressed as the country’s Supreme Court justices took turns
smashing a black piñata with a stick. The piñata, covered in the word “justicia,” or justice, was filled with fake money — a performance
staged to illustrate the supposed corruption plaguing the country’s judiciary.
“The election of judges and magistrates by popular vote is a democratization of one of the most important powers of our country,” said Layla
Manilla, 21, one of the participating students, who is studying politics.
Ms. Manilla is one of thousands of Mexicans who have taken to the streets in recent weeks to show their support for — or opposition to — the
contentious judicial overhaul championed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his allies, which on Wednesday overcame its last major
obstacle when it was narrowly passed in the Senate.
“The election of judges and magistrates by popular vote is a democratization of one of the most important powers of our country,” Layla Manilla
said.
In interviews with The New York Times, Mexicans expressed a range of concerns and aspirations for the measure. Some worried about the end of judicial
independence, while others celebrated the chance to vote in the people responsible for distributing justice. Many more were indifferent to the
overhaul, unclear on exactly what to expect from the change.
The legislation would shift the judiciary from an appointment-based system, largely grounded in training and qualifications, to one in which voters
elect judges and there are fewer requirements to serve. Some 7,000 judges would lose their jobs, from the chief justice of the Supreme Court down to
those at state and local courts, and Mexicans could start voting as soon as next year.
The majority of state legislatures adopted the measure by early Thursday — a requirement for its passage — paving the way for its anticipated
delivery to Mr. López Obrador to be signed into law.
In the southern state of Yucatán, a group of protesters on Wednesday afternoon stormed the local congress, where Morena and its allies hold a
majority. As demonstrators called for them to suspend the vote, chanting “The judiciary will not fall!” and shouting “Listen to us!,”
lawmakers decided to delay it. They approved the project a few hours later. Critics of the measures also protested in several other states and tried
to barge into congressional buildings, resulting in some injuries.
In recent weeks, more than 50,000 judges and court workers went on strike across the country, and protesters forced their way into the Senate building
in Mexico City on Tuesday afternoon before the vote. Senators then moved to a second venue with a large police presence.
The president’s insistence in pushing through the measures has kept financial markets on edge, marked by a roughly 15 percent plunge in the value of
the currency, the peso, since early June.
Thousands of Mexicans have taken to the streets in recent weeks to show their support for — or opposition to — the contentious judicial overhaul.
The government argues the measure is crucial for modernizing the judiciary, eradicating corruption and restoring faith in a system marred by graft,
nepotism and influence-peddling. Mr. López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, takes office on Oct. 1 and has fully backed the plan.
However, critics oppose the overhaul, contending that it wouldn’t effectively address corruption, but rather bolster Mr. López Obrador’s
nationalist political agenda.
“Judges, magistrates and justices are the voice of the law and the Constitution, not of the people,” said Luis Hernández, 21, a law and economics
student, moments after delivering a rousing speech while protesting at the Senate building. “They are the voice of reason. There is no point in
having a judicial career if, in the end, you have to be popular to deliver justice.”
José Luis Cázares Gayosso, 55, a federal employee who lives in Iztapalapa, a working-class neighborhood of Mexico City, said that he had problems
with the judicial system and that it needed to change. He said it took him too long — four years — to gain custody of his two children after he
and his partner separated, and it was resolved only in 2019 after he took legal action against the judge.
Still, Mr. Cázares Gayosso said, he preferred that judges remain appointed but that they be forced to leave office sooner. He said he feared that
voting for them might end up giving the country’s ruling party control of the judicial system.
“It’s dangerous to give all of the power to one party,” he said.
Polls commissioned by the Morena party indicate that around 80 percent of respondents think revamping the judicial system is necessary — though
other polls have found that more than 50 percent of those surveyed don’t know what the overhaul entails.
“It’s very fashionable now to be of the people, but sometimes the people aren’t informed,” said Juan Diego Naranjo, 28, a plumber in Cancún.
“If they’re not going to know much about the judicial candidates, then many won’t go out to vote. If in the presidential, governor and municipal
elections many of us didn’t go out to vote, maybe there will be less for judges.”
Mr. Naranjo admitted that he himself didn’t cast a ballot during the 2018 presidential elections, which Mr. López Obrador won, because he didn’t
have time to study the campaigns.
Ms. Manilla, the college student who supports the overhaul, said, “There’s never total certainty that majorities will make the right decisions.”
But, she added, “if the people make mistakes, then the people are also going to be able to rectify.”
Other Mexicans said they worried there were important pieces missing from the discussion.
Laura Alvarez, 38, a restaurant manager in Monterrey, in northeastern Mexico, said that choosing a judge might improve public confidence. She said she
had a terrible experience with the justice system when her daughter was sexually abused and the case was dismissed before it even reached a judge.
Still, she felt the judicial overhaul needed more explanation from politicians.
“They’re not telling you, ‘This is what I want to change and this is what I’m going to offer you,’” she said. “That’s why I find
myself in the middle. I want more transparency.”
Regardless of their differences on the plan, many Mexicans largely agreed there was a long-overdue need to rid the system of what they called
privileges, nepotism and corruption.
Javier Martín Reyes, a law professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that a majority of Mexicans’ interactions with the judiciary
were not at the federal level but at the local one — such as labor, family or civil disputes — and that it was here that “more reforms” were
needed.
But he said that two important parts of the justice system that the average Mexican dealt with most often — the police and prosecutors — weren’t
addressed in the proposal.
“If Mexico today is a country with enormous rates of impunity, it is largely because the vast majority of crimes are not investigated and some that
are investigated do not reach conclusions,” Mr. Reyes said. “And those that reach conclusions many times are cases that aren’t sufficiently well
assembled or investigated to later be upheld in a tribunal or court.”
After living so long under a system he described as riddled with problems, José Luis Valderrama, a 68-year-old grocery bagger in Monterrey, said it
was worth trying something new — especially if voters could elect qualified people.
“Possibly things will change,” he said. “We really don’t know. It’s a matter of trying.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/world/americas/mexico-jud...
[Edited on 9-14-2024 by BajaNomad]
AKgringo - 9-14-2024 at 07:09 AM
This is quite the reading assignment Doug, will there be a quiz?
Ateo - 9-14-2024 at 08:07 AM
I've been reading up on this.......I hope it yields a better and more robust democracy and less corruption. My AMLO loving wife thinks this is a
great idea. Good luck Mexico!
BajaNomad - 9-15-2024 at 08:15 PM
I would think that for anyone with $ invested in Mexico (property or otherwise), this topic would be top-of-radar.
There "could" be some unintended consequences - from multiple angles. This whole thing seems like a VERY big deal going forward, and while I hope it
turns out well, there are some significant risks (or so it seems).
But what do I know? 
[Edited on 9-16-2024 by BajaNomad]
Mexico’s Contentious Judiciary Overhaul Becomes Law
BajaNomad - 9-15-2024 at 08:30 PM
Going forward, Mexican voters will now elect judges at every level, dramatically restructuring the third branch of government.
By James Wagner
Reporting from Mexico City
Sept. 15, 2024
Updated 9:50 p.m. ET
Mexico passed into law on Sunday a constitutional amendment remaking its entire judiciary, marking the most far-reaching overhaul of a country’s
court system ever carried out by a major democracy.
The results demonstrate the exceptional influence of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, who championed the legislation. The victory of
his allies in June elections afforded them substantial legislative majorities to advance the contentious proposal in the leader’s final weeks in
office. On the eve of Mexico’s Independence Day, the measure was published in the government’s official gazette, making it law.
The law shifts the judiciary from an appointment-based system, largely grounded in training and qualifications, to one where voters elect judges and
there are fewer requirements to run. That puts Mexico onto an untested course, the consequences of which are difficult to foresee.
“Now it’s different,” Mr. López Obrador said in a video posted on social media on Sunday night in which his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, was
seated next to him. “Now it’s the people who rule, the people who decide.”
Roughly 7,000 judges, from the chief justice of the Supreme Court down to those at local courts, will have to run for office under the new system. The
changes will be put into effect gradually, with a large portion of the judiciary up for election in 2025 and the rest in 2027.
The government said the overhaul was needed to modernize the courts and to instill trust in a system plagued by graft, influence peddling and
nepotism. Ms. Sheinbaum, takes office on Oct. 1 and has fully backed the plan.
But the proposal was met fierce resistance from judicial workers, law experts, investors, judges, students, opposition legislators and other critics.
Mr. López Obrador’s vow to push it through kept financial markets on edge and caused a diplomatic spat with the U.S. and Canadian ambassadors.
Mr. López Obrador first presented his idea of overhauling the judiciary last year. Angered by Supreme Court rulings that blocked some of his
administration’s plans, among them weakening Mexico’s electoral watchdog agency and putting the National Guard under the military’s control, he
vowed to have judges and justices elected by popular vote. That move seen as retaliation by some analysts.
“The judiciary is hopeless, it is rotten,” he told reporters back then, calling on his supporters to give his political movement large majorities
in Congress at the polls in order to pass the overhaul and change the constitution.
Despite protests and strikes by a range of groups including more than 50,000 judges and court workers over the past several weeks, the proposal passed
easily through the lower house of Congress, in which the president’s party, Morena, holds a supermajority. On Wednesday, the Senate narrowly passed
it despite a delay caused by protesters forcing their way into the building.
By Thursday, the bill was approved by a majority of the 32 state legislatures, the final requirement before being published into law.
“Mission accomplished,” Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the president of the Senate, said on Friday, announcing that the measure had been sent to Mr.
López Obrador for publication.
Many Mexicans have expressed support for the measure, saying it would give them leverage in a court system that few trust.
According to government surveys, 66 percent of Mexicans perceive judges to be corrupt, and analysts say nepotism remains rife. A recent assessment
found that about 37 percent of judicial officials have at least one family member working in the courts.
Now comes the complicated part.
The Senate will have to issue a call for candidates for the thousands of judgeships nationwide. And Mexico’s electoral agency would have to start
organizing the judicial elections. At some point, state legislatures would modify their local constitutions.
The plan is for voters next June to elect all the Supreme Court justices, whose number would be reduced to nine; members of the newly created
Disciplinary Tribunal; and about half of the country’s 7,000 judges, with the rest elected in 2027. An average Mexican might have to sift through
anywhere from hundreds to thousands of candidates when they vote.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/world/americas/mexico-ove...
BajaNomad - 9-15-2024 at 08:36 PM
"Hoy, en este día histórico, firmé el decreto para la publicación en el Diario Oficial de la Federación de la reforma constitucional al Poder
Judicial, aprobada en el Congreso y en la mayoría de las legislaturas locales. Me acompañó como testigo la presidenta electa Claudia Sheinbaum
Pardo. Es un honor estar con Claudia hoy."
Google Translate:
"Today, on this historic day, I signed the decree for the publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation of the constitutional reform to the
Judiciary, approved by Congress and by most local legislatures. I was accompanied as a witness by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. It is an
honor to be with Claudia today."
https://translate.google.com/?sl=es&tl=en&text=Hoy%2...
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_9Vn1wMjCh
https://x.com/lopezobrador_/status/1835479621346972054
[Edited on 9-16-2024 by BajaNomad]