This clash was long overdue. Recently, the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, published a statement lamenting President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s plan to emasculate the Mexican judiciary by ramming through “reform” legislation before his term ends Sept. 30. Mr. Salazar called the plan “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.”
AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, immediately fired back. At a news conference last Friday, he denounced Salazar’s “unfortunate, imprudent statement,” which amounted to “a lack of respect for our sovereignty.” The Mexican foreign ministry sent a letter chastising the United States for intruding on topics “that are strictly the internal affairs of the Mexican State.”
They are not, though. At stake are judicial independence and the rule of law in a country that has known too little of either during its long history. Mr. López Obrador’s plan could also halt the economic integration of North America. Through their shared border and partnership in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, Mexico and the United States have mutual interests in issues spanning commerce, migration, organized crime and national security.
They justify Mr. Salazar’s concern that Mr. López Obrador’s “reform” lacks the “safeguards that will ensure the judicial branch will be strengthened and not subject to the corruption of politics” and “will threaten the historic trade relationship we have built, which relies on investors’ confidence in Mexico’s legal framework.” The United States had every right to weigh in, as did Canada, through its ambassador, Graeme Clark, who noted that Canadian investors are “concerned.” (Mr. López Obrador, unsurprisingly, said Mexico would also be sending a protest letter to the Canadians.)
Mr. López Obrador’s plan includes a scary expansion of the list of crimes for which the government can impose mandatory pretrial imprisonment. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, has previously argued that the practice violates human rights and demanded Mexico end the practice, which already accounts for about half of those incarcerated in Mexico. The plan would also dismantle several independent bodies established after the advent of multiparty democracy in 2000 to limit the power of the presidency.
The chapter that most worries Mr. Salazar and Mr. Clark would dismiss all current members of Mexico’s federal judiciary, including all the justices of the Supreme Court, then replace them via massive elections in 2025 and 2027. More than likely, Mr. López Obrador’s Morena party would win the lion’s share of the positions.
Mr. López Obrador is likely to get his way, however, because his party won overwhelming congressional majorities in June’s elections. He is within three (likely negotiable) Senate votes of the number needed to amend the constitution. His anointed successor as president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who won the presidency by a landslide, so far supports the plan.
Both claim the objective is to wring corruption out of the judiciary. This is a smokescreen. Mexico’s judiciary often dared to resist Mr. López Obrador’s more capricious policies, and those of his party. He wants to defeat it once and for all.
Judges, magistrates and federal court employees in Mexico have gone on strike to oppose the proposal. Judges outside of Mexico are also aghast. The Latin American Federation of Magistrates requested an audience with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to discuss “the critical state of judicial independence in the region.” Mr. López Obrador’s reform, the request argued, “aspires to subdue judges, infringing on the independence of the Judiciary.”
To be sure, Mexico’s justice system is dysfunctional and corrupt. But judges are the wrong target. As Human Rights Watch argued, Mr. López Obrador and Ms. Sheinbaum “should abandon their crusade against judges and commit to improving the weakest link in Mexico’s justice system: prosecutors’ offices.” Margaret Satterthwaite, U.N. special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, noted that politicizing Mexico’s judiciary increases the risk of corruption.
Ms. Sheinbaum still seems solidly behind her boss, posting about the election of some judges in U.S. states. That does not, however, offer much support for Mr. López Obrador’s cause. Voting for federal judges is extremely rare around the world, precisely because it undermines judicial independence.
Ms. Sheinbaum’s reluctance to disagree with Mr. López Obrador is perhaps understandable, given his control over the political apparatus on which her forthcoming presidency will depend. This is shortsighted, though. If her patron’s attempt to bring the judiciary to heel goes through, it will ensure that her first months, if not years, in office will be overshadowed by a fight over judicial independence. And it will threaten her avowed economic strategy, which hinges on integration with the North American economy.
In that sense, Mr. Salazar and Mr. Clark helped her cause. But she should find a way to disagree with this plan in her own voice. It would be a shame if judicial independence in Mexico died because Ms. Sheinbaum lacks political independence from Mr. López Obrador.
The Washington Post
