López Obrador insisted that the ruling party’s judicial reform benefits workers
by the El Reportero‘s wire services
Hundreds of judges and magistrates in Mexico joined in the first minutes of this Wednesday the historic strike carried out by the workers of the Judicial Branch to reject the controversial reform proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“Today we meet at a crucial moment for the future of our nation (…). We are at a turning point. A legislative reform promoted by the President of the Republic, and processed by a parliamentary majority, threatens to undermine the very pillars on which our rule of law is based,” accused the director of the Association of Magistrates and District Judges (Jufed), Juana Fuentes Velázquez.
The official offered a harsh speech at the start of the strike of judges and magistrates during a massive event that took place outside the Federal Judicial Council, located next to Congress, where the controversial project will be debated next week.
“This attempt to concentrate power in a single person is not only a direct affront to judicial independence, but also a mortal blow to the democracy that so many before us fought to establish and protect,” she said about an initiative that seeks to have judges, magistrates and members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) elected through popular vote.
Fuentes Velázquez warned that, when power is concentrated in the hands of a few, “justice becomes an instrument of oppression and the rights of citizens are relegated to the whim of those who hold power.”
She also considered that the reform seeks to centralize power, puts the independence of judges and the well-being of society at risk and turns the Judicial Branch into an arm of the Executive Branch.
“Without an independent justice system, investments will be affected, confidence in our institutions will crumble, and human rights will be at the mercy of a centralized and authoritarian state machinery. We are heading towards an unprecedented institutional crisis,” he warned to the applause of the strikers.
The latest reform
The workers of the Judicial Branch began the strike in the first minutes of Monday. In the evening, the judges and magistrates voted in favor of joining the protest measure.
Thus, according to the Animal Político portal, more than 50,000 members of the Judicial Branch are already participating in the strike nationwide, from mayors, officers, administrators, secretaries of agreements and attorneys to higher court judges.
The reform is the last major legislative project of López Obrador, who will end his government on October 1. That is why he hopes that the initiative will be approved by Congress, which, starting on Sept. 1, will have an official majority, since that day the deputies and senators who were elected on June 2 will take office.
The project has generated strong resistance because it would completely modify the Judicial Branch, since it establishes that the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the members of the Federal Judicial Council, the magistrates of the Federal Electoral Court and the district judges will be voted for in 2025 in elections that, for the first time in history, would be open to the public.
López Obrador presented the reform at the beginning of this year and since then the tension has been increasing, since the president has denigrated the judges with frequent accusations of corruption.
“I respect their right to demonstrate, they are free,” said the president on Wednesday, again minimizing the impact that the strike may have.
“Nothing happens with their movement, it does not matter because they do not serve the population,” he insisted.
