MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hundreds of protesters pushed into Mexico’s Senate on Tuesday as lawmakers weighed a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, forcing the body to take a temporary recess for the safety of the senators.
The shut down came just hours after Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, appeared to have wrangled the votes it needed to jam through the proposal after at least one member of an opposition party was accused of flipping to support it.
That move and other political maneuvering ahead of a vote on the plan championed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador fueled even more outrage after weeks of protests by judicial employees and law students.
Critics and observers say the plan, which would have all judges elected, could threaten judicial independence and deal a severe blow to the system of checks and balances.
Some protesters entered the Senate chambers in an effort to block the vote after they said lawmakers were not listening to their demands.
“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 Senate chamber. Others outside the court roared when newscasters announced the Senate was taking a recess. At least one person fainted after protesters pushed into the building.
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Among them was Alejandro Navarrete, a 30-year-old judicial worker, who said that people like him working in the courts “knowing the danger the reform represents” came to call on the Senate to strike down the proposal.
“They have decided to sell out the nation, and sell out for political capital they were offered, we felt obligated to enter the Senate,” he said, carrying a Mexican flag. “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.”
Despite unrest in recent weeks, 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 Sen. 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.
His father, Yunes Linares, dodged questions from the press about how he would vote on Tuesday, but accused Cortés of “lynching” him and claimed it was “absolutely false” that he has been coerced to vote for the overhaul. He was flanked by two Morena senators as he spoke.
“I’m not a traitor, I’ve never betrayed anyone,” he said. The accusations “aren’t democracy. I am coming here to act completely freely.”
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.
The Tuesday break in by protesters was met by sharp criticism by some like Morena senator Andrea Chávez, who wrote in a post on X: “Violently breaking into the plenary session where we, the representatives of the people, deliberate is not a way to resolve differences.”
Others like Mayuli Martínez Simón, a PAN senator, cast the blame on the ruling party as they stood on the Senate floor among throngs of protesters. As she did, protesters trickled out, headed to another building where senators planned to restart their debate at 7 pm.
“With absence of dialogue from Morena, today this is what we’re seeing. The citizens, Mexicans, took over the Senate, entering with force. It’s not the best, but we didn’t have any other option,” she told the Associated Press in an interview.
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Associated Press videojournalist Martín Silva Rey contributed to this report from Mexico City.
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