Mexico

Financial markets, the Mexican business community, and the US government have all been unpleasantly surprised by the government’s plans to reform the judiciary, announced in February 2024 as part of a package of 20 reforms to be undertaken at the tail end of the AMLO presidency. The bulk of the reforms were rushed through congress between 1 September and 1 October. The significance of these dates is that effective from 1 September the new congress was sworn in, reflecting the new two-thirds majority obtained by Morena and its allies that resulted from the June elections. That gave the outgoing government a window in which to approve most of the reforms before AMLO officially handed power to Sheinbaum on 1 October. Up to a point, the reforms were presented to the incoming president as a fait accompli (Sheinbaum has nevertheless insisted whenever asked that she agrees with them.) The legitimacy of the operation was called somewhat into question when it emerged that the government had used strong-arm tactics, threatening an opposition senator to get him to change sides and deliver the necessary two-thirds majority for the reform.