Mexico's outgoing president vows to pursue changes to Constitution despite market nervousness
Mexico’s outgoing president has pledged to press ahead with judicial reforms despite nervousness among investors, and suggestions from his own handpicked successor that he should wait
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s outgoing president pledged Friday to press ahead with j udicial reforms despite nervousness among investors and suggestions from his own handpicked successor that he should go slow.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would pursue 20 constitutional changes after his Morena party won a two-thirds majority in Congress in Sunday’s elections, including making all judges run for election and enshrining a series of unfunded benefit mandates in the Constitution.
Sunday's elections ensured that Claudia Sheinbaum, the candidate of López Obrador's Morena party, will be the next president. Sheinbaum had spent most of the week talking to international financial organizations and investors, trying to calm markets after a 10% drop in the value of the peso.
She suggested Thursday the reforms had not yet been decided and should be subject to dialogue.
“It has not yet been decided,” Sheinbaum said Thursday. “My position is that a dialogue will have to be opened, the proposal must be debated.”
But on Friday López Obrador mocked any opposition to the changes. He called critics of the reforms “the promoters of nervousness," and claimed that big corporations were worried about losing judges who he claimed are protecting them. At present, judges are appointed or approved by legislators.
“There are justices who are employees of the big corporations,” López Obrador said at his morning press briefing. “They have some judges on their keychains, adding “justice is above the markets.”
Analysts say the president is angry that the
Read more on abcnews.go.com
