Claudia Sheinbaum's Initiatives Beyond Judicial Reform

The president-elect of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, recently presented a package of reforms that she plans to promote during her mandate, especially at the beginning of her government.

These initiatives were announced after her meeting with the current Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which occurred on June 10 and was rated positively by both.

Despite Sheinbaum’s victory, the reforms, which address various issues, have received a great deal of feedback, especially focused on adjustments to the Mexican Judicial Branch. These will be added to the 20 proposals that the current head of state presented in February.

“We are giving a mandate to the virtual president-elect so that she does not have the obstacle that López Obrador presented to [promote judicial reform],” said Jesús López Almejo, professor of International Relations and member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology of Mexico (CONAHYCT), in an interview with Sputnik. ” To begin with, Sheinbaum represents a program for which people are voting.”

To better understand the issues that the next president of Mexico spoke about, Sputnik explained the details of these strategies.

What are the initiatives?
The package of initiatives proposed by the president-elect of Mexico, who will take office on October 1 of this year, focuses on various areas ranging from social support to fundamental changes in the powers that make up the government.

The plans are as follows:

Financial support for women between 60 and 64 years old: according to Sheinbaum, this is due to the effort they make to take care of the family and household chores in general. This program would be prior to the pension that Mexicans receive at age 65.
Scholarships for basic-level students: people between 5 and 17 years of age who study in public schools will be able to count on this benefit.
Changes to the ISSSTE law: the Mexican president-elect indicated that the adjustments to the legislation of the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers will address requests from Mexican teachers, especially an increase in their pension.
No re-election in public positions: although running for the same position has been prohibited since 1933 in the case of the Presidency of the Republic, this situation is not the same in the case of deputies, senators, mayors, and city council officials, and that is what will be sought in the new government.
Reform of the judiciary: this proposal has been on the table since the second half of AMLO’s six-year term. Its aim is to punish judges who commit acts of corruption and, in turn, it would establish that the members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) be elected by vote.

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The controversies
The reform that has generated the most controversy is the judicial one. This is because the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) obtained a qualified majority in the Chamber of Deputies and a robust prevalence in the Senate of the Republic, with which part of the country, especially the opposition, suggested that this could lead to the approval of various initiatives without a real counterweight.

This generated fear in the stock markets and a drop in the Mexican peso of more than 3%, based on data from the Bank of Mexico (Banxico).

Regarding it, López Almejo, who also has a doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Guadalajara, assures that the application of this reform is necessary, since the current constitution of this power has allowed acts of corruption and injustice to prevail in the country:

“The Judiciary seems to be there to guarantee impunity for the richest. The question is who is in charge of ensuring that judges, ministers and magistrates act in accordance with the law… In practice, this [sector] has disconnected from theory, that is, it does not fulfill its task of looking after the population.”

For the expert, beyond market variations, the worrying thing is where the profiles of those who could be elected at the polls will go:

“I am concerned about the democratic election of ministers, magistrates, and judges because, I believe, the fact that they owe more to their voters than to their own career can be dangerous in the medium and long term because there will be more overtly political criteria.” However, he recognized that currently, the Mexican Judiciary is strongly politicized.

Therefore, “if different results are sought with the same practices, it will not be achieved,” said López Almejo. “Given this, if they are counting on using another strategy because the trajectory [of the participants] is not enough to improve, we must look towards democratic election. Another option is to look for an independent body that regulates it, that is not below the Supreme Court, to investigate them and remove them from office if they do not proceed in accordance with the law.”

How to overcome the controversy?
After the negative reactions to the reforms, especially from the Mexican Judiciary, Sheinbaum clarified to the public, especially national and international investors, that this measure should be debated among various sectors of society.

As part of this strategy, she proposed holding a citizen consultation, which will be carried out by the Morena party during the weekend of June 15 and 16. The result will be announced on Monday, June 17.

For Sheinbaum, this action will provide legitimacy to the proposal, since people will be able to express their opinion on the matter.

Regarding the rest of the initiatives presented by the president-elect, López Almejo emphasized that much of the success, at least in the first part of her government, can be encouraged by the positive results of the López Obrador administration.

“There is already a project, results, and a blueprint,” said López Almejo. “The idea is to make a great qualitative leap beyond the quantitative one, which Sheinbaum already has… With this, she must ensure that people continue to have confidence in politicians, as AMLO achieved.”

(Sputnik) by Angélica Ferrer

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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