Protesters blasted with fire extinguishers as they storm Mexican parliament

Senate approves controversial decision to allow voters to elect judges at all levels

Mexican legislators approved a controversial judicial overhaul on Wednesday, despite having to change venue after protesters stormed the debate chamber mid-session.
The proposal will see all judges in the country elected by popular vote rather than via an appointment system.
Supporters of the plan say it will make judges more democratically accountable, but critics say it will undermine constitutional checks and balances and strengthen the power of the ruling Left-wing populist party Morena.
Although a few countries hold elections for some judicial positions, the changes will make Mexico the first country in the world to allow voters to elect judges at all levels.
Footage showed dozens of demonstrators on Tuesday night flooding into the building, waving Mexican flags and chanting “traitors” at lawmakers who were in favour of the reform.
Security personnel used tear gas and sprayed foam from fire extinguishers at the protesters as they were attempting to push through a door into the building.
Protesters also formed a human chain to block access to the building before legislators switched venues to a sports complex, where they voted in favour of the proposal by 359 to 135 after a session that continued into Wednesday morning.
Although lawmakers still need to debate more than 600 of the bill’s details, Wednesday’s vote was the legislation’s last major hurdle and it is expected to pass when it moves to the senate.
The judicial overhaul was put into motion by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, who is in the final month of his six-year term in office.
Mr López Obrador enjoys substantial popularity in Mexico due to Left-wing populist measures, such as a generous pension programme. However, he has often been accused of riding roughshod over the democratic process.
In February, major protests broke out in Mexico City after he proposed dissolving the agency responsible for organising the country’s elections.
Leading Morena figures mobilised in support of Mr López Obrador’s judicial reform plan.
Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the lower house, said: “We went to the streets, we went knocking on doors, we went to towns.
“We told the people that if they voted for us we would vote for the reforms of President López Obrador.
“We did not deceive them, we did not deceive anyone.”
Claudia Sheinbaum, the president-elect, also passionately defended Mr López Obrador’s changes, arguing that the measures will ensure trust in a system that has long been plagued by corruption and nepotism.
Many critics agree that the current system requires reform, but warn that the government’s sweeping revamp will erode judicial independence.
“More than a judicial reform, this is an act of revenge – because the judiciary has been a counterweight to the decisions of the president,” said Patricia Flores, a lawmaker with the opposition Citizens’ Movement party.
“This would become a tool of political persecution,” said judge Juana Fuentes, a member of the federal judiciary who opposes the plan.
Ms Fuentes went on to say that judges could be told to make rulings in favour of the government under threat of being removed from their positions.
Legal experts have warned that the scale of the overhaul could see major problems in the short term.
“We’re going to see some very bad rulings at the beginning,” said Juan Jesús Garza Onofre, a constitutional law researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
“There is going to be a learning curve that involves delaying processes that are already underway,” he added.
In August, Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico, said that the reform was a “major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy”, which led to the Mexican government pausing its relationship with the US embassy.