Mexico’s plan to make judges stand for election is indeed aimed at foreign firms, president says

MEXICO CITY — Foreign business chambers have been warning for weeks that a proposed overhaul of Mexico’s judiciary, that would make judges stand for election, will hurt foreign businesses and endanger investment in Mexico.

And President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum has spent weeks trying to calm those fears, saying it’s simply a pro-democracy measure. But on Friday, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who came up with the plan — confirmed that the sweeping changes are indeed aimed directly at foreign firms.

“The corrupt judges, ministers, justices, are they going to continue defending this? Are they going to continue defending foreign companies that come to loot, rob and affect the economy of the Mexican people?” López Obrador said. “Are they going to continue representing these companies?”

Critics say the constitutional changes to replace 7,000 judges nationwide would deal a severe blow to the independence of the judiciary, making them more loyal to their constituents or the ruling party than to the law. They also question how such massive elections could be carried out without having drug cartels and criminals field their own candidates.

It was yet another bucket of cold water for Sheinbaum, who has spent her entire political career as a protégée of López Obrador and has pledged to continue all of his polices. After the Mexican peso plunged in value following her victory in the June 2 elections, she has walked a tightrope.

Sheinbaum, who takes office Oct. 1, has defended the changes, but also went on a campaign to reassure foreign investors, meeting with international lending organizations, business leaders and the heads of major corporations.

Earlier this week, Sheinbaum said “the reforms to the judicial system will not affect our commercial relations, nor private Mexican investments, nor foreign ones. Rather the opposite, there will be a greater and better rule of law and democracy for everyone.”

U.S. business chambers, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, banks and financial analysts have all said the overhaul represents risks, largely because elected judges may feel more loyalty to their constituencies — or López Obrador’s ruling Morena party — than the law.

For example, López Obrador has continuously and publicly attacked foreign energy companies that built cleaner electrical power plants in Mexico, because their presence weakened the hold of the state-owned power company he championed. López Obrador has accused the foreign firms of charging too much for electricity.

López Obrador tried to pass a law guaranteeing the state-owned power company a majority share of the market and putting the foreign-built plants last in line for electricity, but courts blocked it: not because they favor foreign firms, but because the Mexican constitution forbids creating monopolies.

The outgoing president has frequently made it a question of nationalism, claiming the foreign firms — many of them Spanish — displayed “the attitude of conquistadores” who subjugated and looted Mexico in the 1500s. In fact, the foreign-built plants were allowed in because they are less polluting than Mexico’s state-owned facilities.

In his remarks Friday, López Obrador confirmed that the new judicial overhaul — which passed the lower house this week and will go to a vote in the Senate next week — was aimed directly at cases like that of the power companies. He claimed opponents of the changes, including current judges, wanted to protect such companies.

“They want to continue guaranteeing, by any means possible, the continued domination of foreign companies, and do away with the CFE,” the state-owned utility company, López Obrador said.

Foreign investment, mostly from the U.S., is vital to Mexico’s economy. López Obrador finishes his term on Sept. 30, leaving Sheinbaum — who will be inaugurated the next day — to pick up the pieces.

Under the current system, judges and court secretaries, who act as judges’ assistants, slowly qualify for higher positions based on their record. But under the proposed changes, virtually anyone with a law degree and a few years of experience “in judicial areas” could become a judge through popular vote.

If too many candidates registered to run, the final contenders would essentially be chosen by putting their names in a hat and drawing lots.

López Obrador ’s Morena party is one seat short of the two-thirds majority it needs in the Senate to get the vote passed, but might be able to pick off an opposition senator. The Centro Pro human rights groups called on the Senate to kill the measure, saying it “affects the life of democracy, endangers human rights and violate Mexico’s international obligations.”

The overhaul has fueled a wave of protests by judges, court employees and students across Mexico in recent weeks.

Mexico’s courts have long been plagued by corruption and opacity, but in the last 15 years they have been subject to reforms to make them more open and accountable, including changing many closed-door, paper-based trials for a more open, oral-argument format.

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