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(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s Senate voted to prohibit courts from challenging or suspending constitutional changes approved by Congress, an attempt to shield a battery of reforms from Supreme Court scrutiny as it reviews a controversial overhaul of the country’s judiciary.
The Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment to protect such reforms by a vote of 85-41, clearing the two-thirds majority threshold required for passage, it said in a statement early Friday. The amendment will now be sent to the lower house of Congress, where President Claudia Sheinbaum’s coalition holds a supermajority.
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The measure follows the approval of a constitutional change requiring the election of all Mexican federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court, by popular vote. Investors, opposition lawmakers and allies like the US have all expressed concerns that the reform will erode the separation of powers and pose risks to Mexico’s democracy.
The change has faced numerous challenges from local judges, the most recent of which ordered its removal from the official gazette. On Oct. 7, the Supreme Court agreed to review the overhaul and is expected to weigh its implications for judicial independence in a case that represents a last resort for opponents seeking to thwart the plan.
The amendment, however, aims to protect that reform and others from judicial challenges, including efforts to block them or rule them unconstitutional. It has similarly drawn criticism from opposition lawmakers who say it is the latest example of the ruling Morena party’s efforts to consolidate power.
“Morena seeks an authoritarian government,” Senator Guadalupe Murguia Gutierrez, the leader of the main opposition party, said during the debate. Fellow party members stood behind her holding banners reading, “No to dictatorship in Mexico.”
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Sheinbaum has repeatedly said that no judge can stop the judicial reform — a priority for her predecessor and partymate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — because it was a decision of the Mexican people.
Last week, the Senate also approved an energy reform that has worried investors because it will hand Sheinbaum’s administration more control over state companies like oil driller Petroleos Mexicanos and utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, giving them priority over private companies in energy generation and distribution.
Congress is also expected to debate another controversial reform seeking to eliminate autonomous regulatory bodies, such as Mexico’s antitrust regulator and its transparency institute.
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