Morena moves to block judicial oversight of reforms in “clear authoritarian sign”

Claudia Sheinbaum standing next to Ricardo Monreal, Mexico City, 2023. Image: Sipa US / Alamy.

Mexico is taking another troubling step on its journey away from democracy. A Senate committee earlier this week approved a reform that would bar court challenges to constitutional changes. Last night, the Senate approved the decree in a vote of 85 - 41. Human rights groups have condemned the move, which strips Mexico’s courts of any power to review or block constitutional reforms passed by the legislature. Mexico’s Senate has de facto provided the executive with unchecked authority. The bill will now go to the lower Chamber of Deputies, where it will most certainly be approved.

The ruling Morena party and its allies are pushing for this change. It seems like a tacit acknowledgement that Mexico’s Supreme Court does have the right to review Morena’s recently secured judicial reform. Indeed, Morena used the courts to challenge President Peña Nieto's constitutional reforms. Now, they're blocking the same process they once relied on.

Juan Zavala, General Secretary of the opposition party Movimiento Ciudadano, condemned the move. Speaking to The Mexico Brief, he said that the move “is a clear authoritarian sign from the new government…that takes Mexico back 15 years in terms of human rights.”

Earlier in the week, Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal claims this change is needed to protect the legislative process. But not everyone in Morena or its coalition seems to have been fully briefed. The Green Party’s leader denounced the reform on social media, only for the party’s executive committee to reverse course and support it.

In another volte-face, Morena Senator Adán Augusto, a key AMLO ally and primary mover of the bill, was forced to drop one of its most controversial elements. His first draft would have scrapped Mexico’s international human rights commitments by removing the legal control of conventionality. Getting rid of this would have pulled Mexico out of the Inter-American Human Rights System.

Still, even the approved reform seems to clash with Mexico’s international treaty obligations. Amnesty International blasted the move, calling on the Senate to reject it. Over 300 other human rights groups joined Amnesty in protesting the proposal. Oxfam Mexico’s Executive Director, Alexandra Haas, took to the social media platform X to decry the legislation as “very serious.”

Green Party Senator Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín sought to placate fears around the reform. According to El Economista, he said it does not nullify citizens’ right to protection.

How that’s true is difficult to see. This reform is part of a larger trend in Mexico’s government around consolidating executive power. The implications here are significant for civil liberties, democratic processes, and human rights protections. Given Morena’s position in Congress and the executive, it’s hard to overstate the threat this poses to Mexico’s democracy. It isn’t hyperbolic to say that with the courts sidelined, Morena will be free to reshape the country’s entire political system unchecked.

For those still hoping President Sheinbaum might reverse Morena’s authoritarian tilt, this is the final reality check. Tensions between branches of government are common. In the US and Britain, acrimony between legislators, the executive, and judges have grown in recent years. But judicial oversight remains respected if not always loved by lawmakers in those countries. This reform will wipe it out entirely, making way for what Milenio’s Carlos Marin has termed a “constitutional tyranny.” Mexico was already trending toward a Hungarian style quasi-democracy. When this is signed into law, it will be more like Turkey.

Morena’s fiercest critics have long warned of dictatorship in all but name. This publication resists using that word, despite a record of highlighting recent democratic backsliding in Mexico. With this latest move, it’s becoming harder to dismiss those voices. Morena and its allies seem determined to prove them right.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on 25 October to reflect the fact that Mexico’s Senate had approved the measure. It was further updated on 28 October to reflect Juan Zavala’s statement to the publication.