Mexican lawmakers flee protesters before passing judicial overhaul

Raucous demonstrators burst into the chamber during the debate, chanting “Traitors!” and shattering a glass door. Lawmakers escaped to a colonial-era building nearby that formerly housed the Senate and resumed the session under heavy police guard.

“You are taking part in one of the biggest steps backward in the history of Mexico,” Sen. Verónica Rodríguez Hernández of the conservative opposition National Action Party said, addressing the ruling party and its allies from a lectern.

Opposition politicians, human rights activists and others say the judicial amendment marks the start of a new era in Mexico in which a dominant party assumes control, snuffing out the democratic gains of the past three decades. Mexico was effectively a one-party state until 2000.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argues that he has the democratic legitimacy to overhaul a justice system permeated by corruption. His Morena party won a landslide victory in June, capturing the presidency and big majorities in Congress. The new legislature opened on Sept. 1, but López Obrador doesn’t turn over power to his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, until next month. That has offered him a window to push through one of his most cherished projects.

Mexico’s economic partners, legal scholars and diplomats say the change will remove predictability and independence from the court system. They say that interest groups, including drug traffickers, could bankroll judges’ electoral campaigns, and that judges will be tempted to issue rulings based on whatever’s popular. Morena could use the new system to capture control of a critical branch of government, they say.

“Never before, in the history of this country, have two branches of government united to destroy the third,” said Luis Donaldo Colosio, a senator from the opposition Citizens Movement party.

The amendment already passed the lower house and is likely to be quickly ratified at the state level. Morena has a majority in 27 of the 32 state legislatures.

It marks a sharp break with the current system, in which most federal judges are named by a professional council that considers their experience and their scores on specialized exams. To fill Supreme Court vacancies, the president has traditionally nominated justices, with Senate approval. Now all those decisions would be turned over to voters, who would select about 7,000 judges, at the federal and local levels.

The business community has been shaken by Morena’s blunt use of its new power. The peso has lost more than 15 percent of its value since the June election. Some international businesses have put investments on hold. Mexico only recently edged aside China and Canada to become the No. 1 U.S. trading partner, and a slump in foreign confidence could be disastrous for its economy.

Debate over the judicial amendment was furious, with lawmakers accusing their opponents of skulduggery and betrayal. Colosio said someone threw gasoline in his face as he tried to enter the old Senate building for the continuation of the debate.

Morena and its allies initially appeared to be one vote short of the two-thirds Senate majority. Opposition leaders alleged the ruling party had tried to lure senators to switch sides, either by offering bribes or threatening judicial investigations of alleged misdeeds.

When Sen. Miguel Ángel Yunes of the National Action Party announced from the lectern Tuesday night that he would support the bill, he was met with a chorus of boos from fellow party members. Morena senators waved their fists in the air, yelling “The reform advances!”

Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and protégé of López Obrador, has promised to continue his policies. She has been particularly supportive of his efforts to ease poverty and expand social programs. But the judicial amendment could complicate the early days of Mexico’s first female president, adding to strains as the economy slows and Sheinbaum attempts to consolidate her mandate after the departure of the highly popular López Obrador.

The judicial legislation has also caused a rift between Mexico and the United States, with U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar calling the measure “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.” López Obrador responded by imposing a “pause” on relations with the embassy and demanding it recognize Mexico’s sovereignty.

Gabriela Martinez and Valentina Muñoz Castillo contributed to this report.