Mexican Lawmakers Meet in Sports Center to Escape Protesters
(Bloomberg) -- Demonstrators formed a human chain around Mexico’s lower house, forcing lawmakers to relocate to a sports center, in a protest against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s judicial reform bill.
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Ricardo Monreal, leader of the ruling Morena party in the lower house, asked his colleagues to stay away to prevent possible violence. Lawmakers will instead hold the debate on the reform at a sports center in Mexico City’s Magdalena Mixhuca neighborhood, next to a Formula 1 race track, he said in a video posted on X.
The controversial bill would make all Mexican federal judges, including those on the Supreme Court, elected by popular vote.
“This reform is happening, because that is what the people of Mexico told us to do,” Monreal said in a separate video, adding that Morena respects the right of demonstrators to protest against the plan.
The reform is a priority for Lopez Obrador in his final weeks in office, who says it will root out judicial corruption. He is seeking to get it passed before he leaves office at the end of September.
But it has drawn backlash from judges, the Mexican opposition, investors and US officials, who say it will undermine judicial independence and will give the ruling party control of the judiciary, eliminating checks and balances. Many of the protesters work in the judicial system.
The first discussion of the general text of the judicial reform proposal was scheduled for 10am, Mexico City time in the lower house, and further debate of individual articles set for Wednesday. Morena and its allies hold a broad two-thirds majority in the lower house which would allow them to approve the changes to the constitution the reform seeks.
After approval in the lower house, the plan would be discussed in the senate.
“They can go and hold the session in hell, but here in the lower house they won’t hold the session today nor tomorrow,” said Patricia Aguayo, one of the leaders of the protest, according to a video posted by La Razon.
--With assistance from Cyntia Barrera Diaz.
(Updates with change of venue in second, third paragraphs.)
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