The federal justice system of Mexico ground to a standstill this week after judges, magistrates and judicial staff began an indefinite strike in protest against the government’s plan to appoint the judiciary by popular vote. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a frequent critic of judges, is pushing through the reform programme before he leaves office in October.
Lõpez Obrador’s successor, president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, has indicated that she supports reform.
Under the plan, federal judges, including the 11 members of the Supreme Court, would be elected from candidates nominated by the government. They would be regulated by an elected Judicial Discipline Tribunal with broad powers to supervise and sanction.
Critics have described the plan as an affront to judicial independence. The US-based Washington Office on Latin America this week described the reforms as a setback for human rights.
Following an online ballot this week, about 55,000 judges and staff nationally have stopped work indefinitely, according to local press reports. In Mexico City striking judges waved national flags and chanted: ‘Friend, understand, my work defends you.’
