MEXICO CITY, Aug 20, (AP): Employees at Mexico’s federal courts went on strike on Monday over measures that would make all judges stand for election as part of a judicial overhaul proposed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Unionized court employees put chains and locks on the gates at several courthouses, saying the measures would deal a significant blow to checks and balances in Mexico and also threaten their working conditions, benefits and salaries. The strike comes amid a long-running rift between the populist leader and the judiciary, spurring on democratic concerns.
Striking employees also objected to changes that would eliminate the system by which judges and court employees accumulate experience and move up to higher positions.
Organizers said thousands of federal court workers joined the strike, which they plan to continue until López Obrador drops his proposals.
Argelia Román Mojica, a federal judge who has worked in Mexico’s judiciary for nearly 25 years, was outside a federal court in Mexico City on Monday morning, alongside hundreds of other protesters.
"It’s a way to put an end to judicial power, a violation of the separation of powers,” said Román Mojica, adding that it's not the "way to improve a justice system.”
López Obrador’s proposals would allow anyone with a law degree and a few years of experience as a lawyer to be elected a judge.
The president, who leaves office Sept. 30, says many judges in Mexico are corrupt and has frequently publicly sparred those whose rulings he disagrees with. His administration has also botched many of the cases it brings to court and then blamed the judges.