Mexico’s judicial reform: The win for López Obrador that’s mortally wounded the opposition

The Mexican opposition has been mortally wounded after the Senate approved on Tuesday a judicial reform, under which judges will be elected by popular vote. The opposition parties National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Citizens’ Movement (MC) lost the first and most important of legislative battle of Mexico’s 66th Legislature, in what was a definitive test of their strength after the June 2 election.

Three votes would have been enough to stop the ruling party Morena and its allies from steamrolling through the constitutional reform, which was backed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But the opposition front fell apart. In the space of a few weeks, they lost three senators, four counting MC Senator Daniel Barreda, who was absent on Tuesday as a result of a strange episode that forced him to stay in the state of Campeche.

The opposition needed 43 senators to prevent Morena and its allies from securing the qualified majority needed to approve constitutional reforms. Its failure to block the measure has severely damaged the opposition’s standing, with PAN and MC hit particularly hard by the blow. It took just nine days for the government to win over a group of opposition senators. PAN Senator Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez voted in favor of the judicial reform, while Barreda was suspiciously absent.

The passage of the judicial reform has dealt a mortal blow to the opposition. The blow has hit PAN leader and senator Marko Cortés particularly hard, as it was Yunes Márquez, a friend from his own party, who cast one of the decisive votes. “It would have been more decent, dear friend, if you had taken our call and told us ‘I am going to betray you.’ It would have been more decent,” said the PAN leader, visibly affected, in an address to the Senate.

According to his statement, Senator Barreda was unable to attend the vote as he was allegedly in a courtroom in the state of Campeche to support his father, who had been arrested. After remaining there for hours, he was eventually able to leave, but it was too late for him to get to Mexico City in time for the vote.

Civil society organizations who opposed the judicial reform have joined together to expose the Senate defectors. “Traitors have a place reserved in the last circle of Dante Alighieri’s hell. Because broken trust is a wound that not even time heals,” states a social media posts that lists the opposition senators who allowed the reform’s passage.

With its reputation in disrepute, the opposition has taken its offensive to the courts. Given the parties only hold 27% of the seats in Congress, they cannot present actions challenging the constitutionality of the judicial reform, as such an appeal requires the backing of 33% of the lower chamber. As a result, the opposition’s only hope is to appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court.

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