Mexico’s Senate approves judicial overhaul

Senators on Wednesday morning voted 86 to 41 to pass sweeping legislation that aims to change how Mexico installs new judges. Mexico’s lower house of Congress last week approved the plan amid widespread protests in the capital that drove lawmakers to relocate to a sports facility for the vote. Protesters interrupted the Senate session Tuesday when hundreds of people broke into the Senate building. The legislation must be ratified by the legislatures of at least 17 of Mexico’s 32 states before it can take effect.

What would the legislation do? The plan, first proposed by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would make nearly all of the country’s more than 7,000 judges and magistrates elected by popular vote instead of appointment. The proposal would also reduce the number of Supreme Court judges from 11 to nine, shorten their term limits by three years, and make Supreme Court judges elected positions. Incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday congratulated senators for passing the legislation. Meanwhile, international leaders have criticized the changes and American lawmakers have called the overhaul a risk to Mexico’s democracy.

Dig deeper: Read my earlier report in The Sift about the proposal.