Politics: AMLO’s moves to tighten institutional grip

MEXICO - Report 26 Apr 2021 by Guillermo Valdes and Francisco González

Just as the Senate was preparing to vote on President López Obrador’s judicial reform package April 15, a lawmaker quietly slipped in a clearly unconstitutional transitory article that would change the composition of the highest judicial bodies in the land. It would extend by two years the terms of Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar and several members of the Judicial Council, including three associated with the AMLO administration. Among its other duties, the council oversees the appointment of judges throughout the judicial system and addresses problems of misconduct.

At this point there are 20 constitutional challenges pending before the high court against AMLO administration reforms that are at the heart of the president’s Fourth Transformation governing project, and we can expect that the future of many other important 4T policies will wind up in the hands of the justices. Now that López Obrador has convinced his supporters in Congress to pass his proposals without the slightest amendment he is moving to consolidate his grip over the judiciary.

In that same vein, the president continues to stoke the country’s deepening political polarization and to step up his attacks on the National Electoral Authority, recently describing the INE’s decision to reprimand him for using his morning press conferences to discuss the current elections as "a technical coup d'état" against him. At the same time, some critics pointed out that with the proposed transitory article, it is the President who is engaging in a coup d'état against democracy.

A new target of the President’s radicalized discourse and approach is the Joe Biden administration. In this case it is clear that the National Palace decisions that have annoyed the White House (the latest one being the contemptuous attitude assumed by AMLO in the climate change summit and his insistence on dictating an immigration policy to his U.S. counterpart) seem largely due to López Obrador's indifference concerning the importance of foreign policy.

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