Mexico to pursue judicial elections plan after top court fails to block reform

Reform requires elections to be held in June 2025 to replace wide range of judicial positions, and reduce supreme court

The Mexican government will press ahead with a controversial reform to elect all judges by popular vote after the supreme court fell one vote short in a bid to invalidate part of it.

After several hours of debate on the constitutionality of the judicial reform, only seven of the court’s 11 justices voted late on Tuesday to support a measure to roll back some of the reform’s key elements – one vote short of the eight required to pass it.

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Mexico president lashes out at supreme court amid looming constitutional crisis

Sheinbaum accuses court of overstepping as it prepares to vote on reform that makes almost all judges elected by vote

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has accused the country’s supreme court of overstepping its functions and “trying to change what the people of Mexico decided” as it prepares to discuss whether to strike down parts of a transformative judicial reform.

The court is expected to vote on Tuesday whether the controversial reform violates other parts of the constitution, setting up a showdown with Sheinbaum barely a month into her government.

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Mexico’s snub to King Felipe rekindles colonialism row with Spain

President-elect refuses to invite Spanish king to her inauguration after lack of apology for crimes of conquest

A festering diplomatic row between Mexico and Spain has been reopened after the Latin American country’s leftwing president-elect refused to invite King Felipe to her inauguration because of his failure to apologise for crimes committed against Mexico’s Indigenous people during the conquest 500 years ago.

In 2019, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote to King Felipe and Pope Francis, calling for them to apologise for the “abuses” of the conquest and the colonial period.

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Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum poised to secure supermajority after historic win

The leader of the Morena party could pass legislation and budgets unopposed through congress

Claudia Sheinbaum seems poised to cement her historic victory as Mexico’s first female president with a supermajority in congress that would let her party pass legislation and budgets unopposed – and perhaps even change the constitution without need for compromise.

Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with 59.5% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority.

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