Mexico's Congress advances a contentious bill to make all judges run for election

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The lower house of Mexico’s Congress passed contentious legislation Wednesday that would launch the most sweeping judicial overhaul of the century by requiring all judges to stand for election.

In a marathon session in which legislators were forced to meet in a gymnasium after protesters blocked the Congress building, the lower chamber approved the constitutional measure 359-135 in a party-line first vote just before the sun rose Wednesday morning. The measure, which requires a two-thirds majority, was passed in a second-round vote later that morning, and is now headed to the Senate, where it is expected to pass by a razor-thin margin.

Mexico’s ruling party says judges in the current court system are corrupt, and wants the country’s entire judicial branch – some 7,000 judges – to stand for election.

Critics say the constitutional changes would deal a severe blow to the independence of the judiciary, and they question how such massive elections could be carried out without having drug cartels and criminals field their own candidates.

Attention now turned to the Senate, where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 's Morena party is one seat short of the two-thirds majority, but might be able to pick off an opposition senator. The Centro Pro human rights groups called on the Senate to kill the measure, saying it “affects the life of democracy, endangers human rights and violate Mexico's international obligations.”

López Obrador said those who opposed it “have no moral standing, because everyone knows, the majority of Mexicans know, that corruption is rampant in the judiciary.”

The president has long railed against courts that blocked some of his building projects and policy measures because they ran afoul of constitutional and legal norms. López Obrador has vowed for months to rush through a raft of measures like the judicial overhaul – as well as a proposal to eliminate almost all independent oversight and regulatory agencies.

The vote is expected to be extremely tight in the Senate, though the president’s party looks poised to win over the single vote it lacks there. If passed by the Senate, the constitutional proposal would be sent to Mexico's 32 state congresses where it must be approved by most of them. López Obrador's party controls a majority of the states.

Critics say the measure will devastate Mexico's system of checks and balances.

“We should inaugurate a wall of shame that says: ‘Today begins the fall of our Republic.’ And it should have the date and all the faces of the Morena congressmen,” Paulina Rubio Fernández, a congresswoman from the conservative opposition National Action Party, shouted before the vote.

Alejandro Moreno, the head of another opposition party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, vowed Wednesday to have party members vote against the proposal in the Senate, as they did in the lower house.

The vote Wednesday was made possible by López Obrador’s Morena party and its allies winning overwhelming majorities in the June 2 elections. The all-night session came after protesters blocked the entrance to Mexico’s Congress on Tuesday in an attempt to demand debate on the judicial overhaul.

The overhaul has fueled a wave of protests by judges, court employees and students across Mexico in recent weeks, and reached another inflection point on Tuesday when protesters strung ropes across entrances to the lower house of Congress to block legislators from entering. That came as the country’s Supreme Court voted 8-3 to join strikes, adding more weight to the protests.

“The party with the majority could take control of the judicial branch, and that would practically be the end of democracy,” said protester Javier Reyes, a 37-year-old federal court worker. “They want to own Mexico.”

Under the current system, judges and court secretaries, who act as judges’ assistants, slowly qualify for higher positions based on their record. But under the proposed changes, any lawyer with minimal qualifications could run, with some candidacies decided by drawing names from a hat.

Mexico’s courts have long been plagued by corruption and opacity, but in the last 15 years they have been subject to reforms to make them more open and accountable, including changing many closed-door, paper-based trials for a more open, oral-argument format.

Voices both at home and abroad say the new changes could mark a setback in the effort to clean up courts.

U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said Tuesday that “there is a great deal of concern,” claiming the changes “could damage relations a lot, and it’s not just me saying that.” Salazar has pointed to the election of judges as his main qualm with the overhaul, noting that it would negatively affect investment and the Mexican economy.

López Obrador said last week he has put relations with the United States and Canadian embassies “on pause” after the two countries voiced concerns over the proposed judicial overhaul.

President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, López Obrador’s close ally, on Tuesday night once again defended the reform, writing on the social media platform X that it “does not affect our commercial relations, nor national or foreign private investments. On the contrary, there will be more and better rule of law and more democracy for all.”

“If judges, magistrates, and ministers are elected by the people, where is the authoritarianism?” she added.

The proposed changes would cover thousands of judges at various levels and would introduce a time limit for judges to rule on many cases to combat a tendency for some trials to stretch out over decades. More controversially, the reforms would also introduce “hooded judges” to preside over organized crime cases; their identities would be kept secret in order to prevent reprisals.

And the courts would be largely stripped of their power to block government projects or laws based on appeals by citizens. It would also almost certainly assure that the president’s party continues with significant political power long after López Obrador leaves office at the end of this month.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Relatives of prisoners gather in favor of the government's proposed judicial reform in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Law students protest the government's proposed judicial reform, which would require judges to get elected into office, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Relatives of prisoners rally in favor of the government's proposed judicial reform in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A relative of a prisoner shows a binder alleging their innocence during a rally in support of the government's proposed judicial reform in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

People protest the government's proposed judicial reform, which would require judges to get elected to office, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. The sign in the middle asks senators to save the people by rejecting the reform. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Relatives of prisoners rally in favor of the government's proposed judicial reform in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A commuter complains about a roadblock by law students protesting against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election, outside a sports center where lawmakers are meeting as an alternative due to other demonstrators blocking Congress in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Law students protest against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election at a sports center where lawmakers are meeting while protesters block Congress in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. The signs read in Spanish: "No to the judicial reform," and "I lost my home. Mexico is my new home. I don't want to lose it. Judicial power cannot be an instrument of political parties, business people, and criminal groups. Students demand impartiality. Independence. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Law students block a street to protest against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election, outside a sports center where lawmakers are meeting as an alternative due to other demonstrators blocking Congress in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Law students block a street to protest against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election, outside a sports center where lawmakers are meeting as an alternative due to other demonstrators blocking Congress in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Judicial workers block entrances of Congress to protest constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Judicial worker Marcos Arenas holds up a Mexican flag during a protest against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election, outside a sports center where lawmakers are meeting as an alternative due to other demonstrators blocking Congress in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Law students block a street to protest against constitutional reform proposals that would make judges stand for election, outside a sports center where lawmakers are meeting as an alternative due to other demonstrators blocking the Congress building in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. The signs read in Spanish: "Call us to ignore us," and "The future of the next decades in Mexico is being voted on now!" (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the U.N. said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.

News of the suspension was relayed to U.N. agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”

Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.

During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.

But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.

Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20% in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.

Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.

The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.

The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.

This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.

Associated Press writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

FILE - Shabana Maani, gives a polio vaccination to a child in the old part of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

FILE - Shabana Maani, gives a polio vaccination to a child in the old part of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)