Mexico's Senate weighed on Wednesday whether to abolish the current judicial system and allow citizens to choose nearly all of the country's judges. But before the vote could be finalized, hundreds of protesters stormed the government building, forcing the body to take a temporary recess. Senators later approved the measure by a single vote.
The Senate vote was the last major hurdle for the sweeping constitutional reform, and it came just after Mexico's ruling party, Morena, wrangled the votes it needed to approve the proposal after one member of an opposition party flipped to support it.
The amendment has already passed the lower house of Congress. As Senators from across the country voiced their opinion for the new measure, protesters entered the chamber after they said lawmakers were not listening to their demands. Protesters broke through the door of the Senate chamber pushing aggressively, using pipes and chains. At least one person fainted after protesters broke in.
"The judiciary isn't going to fall," yelled the protesters, waving Mexican flags and signs against the overhaul. They were joined by a number of opposition senators as they chanted in the chamber. Others outside the court roared when newscasters announced the Senate was taking a recess.
"They have decided to sell out the nation, and sell out for political capital they were offered, we felt obligated to enter the Senate," Alejandro Navarrete, a 30-year-old judicial worker and protester, told the Associated Press. "Our intention is not violent, we didn't intend to hurt them, but we intend to make it clear that the Mexican people won't allow them to lead us into a dictatorship."
Under Mexico's current judicial system, 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. But under the new system, all those decisions would be turned over to voters, who would select about 7,000 judges, at the federal and local levels, including the Supreme Court.
Critics of the reform call it a power grab that will compromise one of the last remaining checks on presidential power. Legal experts say the proposed procedure would turn Mexico into an international outlier, CNN reports. Likewise, experts 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's outgoing president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a popular leftist, has long been critical of his country's Supreme Court after it stood in the way of some of his signature policy proposals. He has said the overhaul is necessary to rid Mexico's judiciary of corruption and ensure it is responsive to popular will.
He also argues he has the democratic legitimacy to overhaul a justice system permeated by corruption. His Morena party won a landslide victory in June, capturing a historic presidency with Claudia Sheinbuam, the country's first family presidency, and big majorities in Congress.
AMLO celebrated the decision, saying the country will "set an example for the rest of the world." "I'm very happy," he added.
The new legislative session opened on Sept. 1, but Lopez Obrador doesn't turn over power to his successor until next month, giving him a window to push through one of his most cherished projects.
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