Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the outgoing President of Mexico and Donald Trump, the former President and front runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, have been in conflict with their respective judicial systems for differing reasons. For AMLO, the fight is about the ruling party’s agenda that features a so-called 4th Transformation designed to change the culture of government away from Neo-Liberal policies, eliminate corruption of public officials and return to the populist ideals of the Mexican Revolution.
After six bankruptcies, over four thousand civil cases including those that involve personal conduct, two impeachments during his presidency and 94 criminal felony counts of which he has so far been convicted of 34, Trump has gotten to the point of personal and deliberate disrespect of the judicial system including law enforcement and especially the courts, judges, juries and legal processes. He has also managed to politicize legal deliberations and plans some sort of revenge when it helps his populist agenda for extremists.
For AMLO and MORENA, the party in power, the long-term strategy to address their political solution has been to gain enough power in the Congress to provide the ability to modify the Mexican Constitution. The target of major change for the incoming administration is to radically alter the judicial system beginning with the Supreme Court and judges throughout the country.
At the core of the plan is to change the Constitution so that judges and justices at all levels are elected rather than appointed for life as they are now. This would politicize the critical third branch of government that now would have to campaign for votes and its magistrates elected like any other politician.
To modify the Constitution, the ruling party and its allies would have to have two thirds voting majority in both houses. In the June election MORENA and its two partners were able to get past the two thirds threshold in the Chamber of Deputies and have a substantial majority in the Senate.
The general feeling is that the new President from the same party Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo will be able to get the necessary votes to make constitutional changes. The idea of direct election of judges is in line with the populist notion relating to public accountability.
In the United States, Donald Trump already has assured a comfortable majority in the Supreme Court by adding three Conservative Justices to the three that were already there during his tenure in office. It is the law enforcement institutions in the Department of Justice which have garnered extensive criticism by Trump and his allies in Congress.
The stated Republican plan for the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies is to acquire “desirable” civil servants that would be willing to be more politically aligned. There is also a personal element to the former President’s motivations for becoming President again as it would afford him the opportunity to make the federal criminal charges he faces go away.
It comes as no surprise that a major change in the judicial system is in the immediate plans of Mexico’s political leadership. This area has been one of the principal sources of abuse, corruption and a tool of the powerful over the weak.
In the United States, the opposite is truer. The judicial institutions have so far held in the face of heavy pressure from one side or the other in our divided nation. The coming months will constitute a critical test of the judicial institutions in both countries. It is serious.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
