Let the Mexicans Choose Supreme Court Judges!: AMLO

On Tuesday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced that he will send a constitutional reform initiative so that citizens directly elect the members of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ).

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During his morning press conference, he recalled that this proposal is not new since the Mexican people directly elected the judges in the time of President Benito Juarez, when the liberal Constitution of 1857 was in force.

On Monday, the Supreme Court invalidated the first part of his electoral reform, known as "plan B." The judges rejected this proposal arguing that the majority in Congress violated the legislative process during its approval in February.

Lopez Obrador will send the constitutional reform proposal before leaving office in September 2024. However, he will wait for next year's elections through which the Mexicans will renew the Congress, where he hopes that the leftist parties will recover the necessary two thirds of the seats that are required to reform the Constitution.

"Only the people can confront this mafia. Only with the decision of the people can a reform be carried out," he emphasized, referring to the judges who were elected by the governments of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN).

“Let the people choose them! Why is the Judiciary in crisis? Why has the Judiciary completely atrophied? Because the PRI and the PAN used it as a bargaining chip when they made their deals," AMLO recalled, emphasizing that the Judiciary "is rotten."

“The judges dared to cancel the law in an act of arrogance and authoritarianism. They are at the service of a rapacious minority, which plundered the country and wants to return,” President Lopez Obrador commented.