Controversial Mexican Judicial Reforms Take Effect

Protesters against judicial reform plan enter the Senate building in Mexico City, Mexico, on Sept. 10, 2024. Paola Garcia/Reuters

Mexico’s controversial judicial reforms, which will subject 7,000 judges to the popular vote, have officially taken effect after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed the constitutional changes on Sunday.

The reforms, which were championed by outgoing President López Obrador—often known by his initials AMLO—were passed after dramatic scenes and protests by those who feared they would disrupt the balance of power in Mexico’s legal system.

López Obrador signed the decree, amending the constitution, while sitting next to his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, in a video posted on social media

He has said the reforms would create a more just and transparent judiciary, amid growing corruption often linked to Mexico’s powerful narcotics cartels.

During a press conference on Sept. 11, López Obrador said: “It’s incredibly important to put an end to corruption and impunity. We are going to move forward in Mexico, and we are going to set an example for the world.”

The reform was approved by Congress, in which the ruling Morena Party has a majority, and in state legislatures earlier this month.

Last week the Mexican Senate passed the reforms by 86–41, narrowly exceeding the necessary two-thirds majority after a Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez, a senator from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), took leave due to health issues and was replaced by his 71-year-old father, Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, who duly voted for the proposal.

The passing of the reforms means that next June the first of two tranches of elections will take place for federal judges, including Supreme Court justices.

María Amparo Hernández Chong Cuy, a circuit judge in Mexico, last week told a livestreamed discussion at the Wilson Center in Washington, incumbent judges like her had been offered a direct place on the ballot, but she had no doubt they would be painted as the “villains” and that the “possibilities of winning with all this adversity were very low.”

Francisca Pou Giménez, a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told The Epoch Times a worrying facet of the reforms was the creation of a Tribunal for Judicial Discipline, which will have “broad powers to investigate, sanction and impeach judges.”

She said it looked like a body, “designed to catch any sign of independence and act upon it.”

Giménez told The Epoch Times: “It will be popularly elected and thus likely politized. It will cause an adverse selection effect because many people will be discouraged to try to get into the lists, knowing they will be elected only for nine years and will be forced to act under the eye of this body.”

‘Chilling Effect’

“It will have a permanent ‘chilling effect’ on independent decision-making,” she added.

Giménez said many Mexicans had hoped López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, who won the presidential election in June and will be inaugurated in January, would distance herself from the legislation.

But she has instead backed it whole-heartedly and on Sept. 12, writing on X, said the reform establishes “a true independent and autonomous power elected by the people.”

Giménez said: “She seems not to understand the content of the reform, she appears not to have availed herself of the necessary information about what it does and its implications, or she is just following the political dynamics dictated by the immense political power retained by AMLO. It is really sad.”

Sinaloa Cartel Civil War

The judicial reforms take effect as authorities in the state of Sinaloa are struggling to cope with an apparent civil war which has broken out in the powerful cartel formerly led by Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo.

There have been at least 19 killings in the state in the last week, as two rival factions within the Sinaloa cartel appear to have gone to war.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in the United States but cartel members loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, appear to have gone to war with the rival El Chapitos, who are run by Guzman’s sons.

It follows the alleged betrayal, in July, of El Mayo to the U.S. authorities by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons.

El Mayo claimed he was ambushed and taken to El Paso, Texas, where he was handed over to the U.S. authorities. He appeared in court in New York on Sept. 13 and pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of the narcotics trafficking organizations which has been accused of corrupting judges in Mexico, leading to the alleged need for the judicial reforms.

Reuters contributed to this report.