On 30 October 2024, after the Mexican Senate passed a judicial reform that would change how judges are appointed, eight out of 11 Supreme Court justices resigned. Instead of being a justice for life, the controversial judicial reform declared that judges from all levels of government would now be elected through popular vote. In addition, Mexico’s lower house of Congress passed a constitutional reform prohibiting challenges raised against any reforms to the Constitution. In response, Mexico is seeing adverse reactions from the international community and domestically, with protesters storming the government building. Ultimately, chaos ensues as the government’s checks and balances diminish. Furthermore, these changes happening under Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, are taking away from the importance of Mexico having its first female president.

According to the Wilson Center, this judicial reform has been in talks since 5 February 2024 with former President López Obrador, and even then, there have been mixed reactions to his proposal. Obrador initiated this proposal because he believed the courts were corrupt and favored the elites. Knowing that President Sheinbaum is loyal to Obrador and has backed up his proposals and reforms in the past shows that she would inevitably pass this controversial reform. This is dangerous because limiting power in the judicial branch gives more power to the president, something that the life term of justices prevented. Arguably, life tenure is in place to limit corruption, not cause more. 

Actions taken by a government leader to consolidate power are not news to anyone; history is full of examples of presidents and prime ministers abusing their power to stay in control. Hence, many democratic countries have institutions to keep the president’s power in check, but if there are no “barriers,” leaders have the green light to do whatever they see fit. It is widespread to see protests occur if an appointed political figure is abusing power. As a response to the abuse of power in the Mexican government, the protesters stormed the Senate building, objecting to the constitutional and judicial reform. The citizens of Mexico now face problems of constitutionality, democracy, and the future legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

Obrador’s and Sheinbaum’s response to alleged corruption in the judicial branch fails to address future problems. With the new reforms, judges will now be elected by popular vote, which exacerbates the risk that people who are under-experienced and susceptible to bribes come to power, a problem that Sheinbaum seemingly has not considered. Additionally, Sheinbaum fails to address public opinion; based on the current events, the people of Mexico do not support these reforms and will continue to protest them. In other words, Mexico will not stay quiet about this issue, and President Sheinbaum will not be able to proceed with her presidency peacefully.

Arguably, Sheinbaum could have approached judicial reform differently and not radically turned it upside down within a matter of days. Leaving Obrador’s proposal behind would have prevented this constitutional debate and trouble from brewing. However, because she is loyal to Obrador, her ideas might not be her own, and her peers might have easily influenced her. This is evident when Sheinbaum backed up Obrador’s pro-oil agenda despite being a climate scientist; Obrador’s agenda countered her whole career. Instead of following someone else’s agenda, she should prioritize her resources to what she promised during her campaign, making people vote for her. She should also be more focused on other issues that plague Mexico, like gender violence/equality, growing violence, and drug trafficking. Following the chaos, people are seeing Sheinbaum in a different light.

The international community fears that Mexico will turn for the worse. According to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, the judicial reform is “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.” These recent events have shown that Sheinbaum’s presidency will be difficult. Where we once applauded that Mexico is challenging the gender status quo by electing its first female president, Mexico is now facing troubles straight from the start of Sheinbaum’s transition to power. If these troubles keep occurring, it can cause problems for Mexico regarding diplomatic relations with the U.S. and other nations. There needs to be space for open communication with Mexico from partnering nations to prevent this from happening.