MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Mexican senators weigh a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, it appeared Tuesday that the country’s ruling party may get the votes it needs in the Senate to jam through the proposal.
The overhaul championed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has fueled weeks of protests by judicial employees and law students, who say the plan, which would have all judges elected, would threaten judicial independence and deal a severe blow to the system of checks and balances.
Despite the outcry, the plan sailed through the lower chamber of Congress last week, and was passed onto the Senate, where López Obrador’s Morena party lacked the necessary supermajority to approve it. In recent weeks, it was able to peel off two senators from an opposition party, but came into this week still missing one more.
It was unclear where that vote would come from because the country’s opposition vehemently opposes the plan. But over the weekend, observers began to speculate that a senator from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez, would support Morena as he refused to answer calls from his party leadership.
On Tuesday, Yunes Márquez announced he would take leave due to health issues and be replaced by his father, Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, a former governor of Veracruz.
While the father and son did not immediately confirm that they were switching to support the overhaul, Yunes Linares strolled into the Senate chambers and was met with applause and chants of “hero!” by Morena senators and screams of “traitor!” from his own party.
One PAN senator, Lilly Téllez, even threw dozens of coins at Yunes Linares, calling him a ”traitor who sold out his country” for his own benefit. A Senate vote was expected Wednesday.
The national head of PAN, Marko Cortés, claimed that it “is evident” that there was an “impunity pact” between the Yuneses and the government so he would vote in favor of the overhaul. Cortés was referring to a July arrest order for senator Yunes Márquez, for alleged falsification of documents and fraud related to his candidacy.
Yunes had challenged it and got a temporary suspension, calling it a political persecution by the governing Morena party, the same party his father now appears ready to support.
A Yunes vote in favor would allow the ruling party to clear the biggest hurdle in making the proposal law. If it passes the Senate, it will have to be ratified by the legislatures of 17 of Mexico’s 32 states, but the governing party is believed to have the necessary support.
The plan has received fierce criticism from within and outside the country.
López Obrador — a populist long averse to independent regulatory bodies, who has long ignored courts and attacked judges — claims his plan would crack down on corruption by making it easier to punish judges. Critics say it would handicap the judiciary, stack courts with judges favoring the president’s party, allow anyone with a law degree to become a judge and even make it easier for politicians and criminals to influence courts.
It has spooked investors and prompted the U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar to call it a “risk” to democracy and an economic threat.
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