MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Protesting judicial workers on Tuesday blocked access to Mexico’s Lower House of Congress to try to prevent a vote on controversial reforms proposed by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
About a thousand Supreme Court employees meanwhile joined a judicial sector strike against the plan, under which judges would be selected by popular vote – a prospect that has alarmed the United States and international investors.
The justices of Mexico’s highest court also decided to suspend their sessions this week in support of the stoppage.
Before dawn, hundreds of judicial employees blocked streets leading to the ruling party-controlled Chamber of Deputies with cars, and placed tape across roads to prevent pedestrians from passing.
“This is a crucial day… because they plan to approve (the proposals) quickly, without analysis, without further dialogue,” Patricia Aguayo, a representative of the workers, told a local radio station.
The protests forced lawmakers to meet in a sports centre in the east of Mexico City instead.
Lopez Obrador’s Morena party and its allies comfortably hold the two-thirds majority in the Lower House needed to approve constitutional reforms, and nearly the same proportion in the Senate.
Lopez Obrador, whose six-year term began in 2018, argues that the judiciary serves the interests of the political and economic elite.
He has often criticised the Supreme Court, which impeded some of his proposed reforms in areas such as energy and security.
The leftist leader, who enjoys an approval rating of around 70 per cent, said at a press conference on Tuesday that judicial officials have the right to “defend their privileges.”
