Mexican judicial workers launch strike ahead of vote to overhaul courts

Audio By Carbonatix

By Ana Isabel Martinez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -A collection of unions representing Mexico’s judicial workers launched an indefinite nationwide strike on Monday ahead of votes by lawmakers on overhauling the country’s judiciary, including moving to the popular election of judges.

Videos posted on social media shortly after midnight showed workers locking chains around the gates of courts and other judicial complexes.

The unions criticized the reform push in a statement as rushed and a danger to the “only counterweight” to the ruling Morena party’s dominance of both the presidency and Congress.

The unions, who represent many of Mexico’s 55,000 judicial workers, said they believed the reform would end merit-based career paths.

The judicial reform is a top priority of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and is set for votes by the newly-elected Congress next month during the leftist leader’s final month in office.

Lopez Obrador has in particular clashed with Mexico’s Supreme Court judges, who have sought to halt some of his initiatives, and he has regularly derided them as corrupt.

Late last week, a key legislative ally detailed a proposal to enact the overhaul in stages, with the election of all Supreme Court judges next year, along with half of all magistrates. The rest would be elected in 2027.

At his regular press conference on Monday, Lopez Obrador said workers have a right to protest, but he again accused the top judges as answering to “potentates” instead of the people.

“They don’t want an authentic rule of law, they want a crooked state,” he said.

The proposed overhaul has spooked investors, who have expressed fears of politicized or otherwise uncertain legal rulings if it is approved by the two-thirds majority of lawmakers needed to change the constitution.

Lopez Obrador’s Morena party appears to have secured the votes needed to enact the reform following last June’s elections.

(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Additional reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez; Editing by Franklin Paul and Conor Humphries)