@guardian: “We intend to make it clear that the Mexican people won’t allow them to lead us into a dictatorship,” said Alejandro Navarrete, a 30-year-old judicial worker. Hundreds of protesters waving Mexican flags and shouting “traitors” broke into Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday, expressing outrage at a sweeping judicial overhaul supported by the outgoing president, which critics say could threaten the independence of the country’s courts and undermine the system of checks and balances. They interrupted a 12-hour session in which the ruling Morena party and allies clinched the final two-thirds vote needed to approve the changes forcing the session to be paused and moved to another location. The vote means the government has overcome the biggest hurdle for its controversial constitutional revision that will make all judges stand for election. It also reduces the number of supreme court judges from 11 to nine, cuts the length of their terms to 12 years, abolishes a minimum age requirement of 35, and halves necessary work experience to five years. Critics fear this change will politicise the judicial branch and threaten democracy, and the move has prompted protests, a strike by judicial workers and market volatility. Wednesday’s vote represents a significant victory for the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will be replaced by Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on 2 October. López Obrador claims his plan would crack down on corruption by making it easier to punish judges. Find out more via the link in bio.

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Wednesday 11 September 2024 16:15:20 GMT