Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has defended his legacy within the last state-of-the-nation handle – an annual report on his authorities – a month earlier than he’s set to go away workplace and get replaced by his shut ally Claudia Sheinbaum.
Talking for 2 hours in Mexico Metropolis’s sprawling Zocalo Sq., Lopez Obrador bade farewell to enthusiastic followers on Sunday as he seeks to advance a serious overhaul of the nation’s courts.
Regardless of the controversial push, which critics say would weaken the judiciary, the Mexican president continues to take pleasure in a 73 p.c approval score as his six-year time period winds down.
“We live in a real democracy, constructing a brand new homeland” and “laying the foundations to start a brand new stage”, he mentioned within the speech.
Hundreds of supporters of Lopez Obrador, broadly recognized by his initials AMLO, crammed the sq., which noticed a party-like environment.
“I got here as a result of it’s the farewell of probably the most historic presidents within the nation,” Jose Luis Diaz, a 39-year-old entrepreneur, advised the AFP information company. “We gained’t see one other president like him for 100 years.”
The presidential report is an annual evaluate of governmental progress in Mexico, akin to the president’s State of the Union handle in the US.
On October 1, Lopez Obrador will hand energy to a fellow member of his Morena occasion, Sheinbaum, who was elected in June to be the nation’s first girl president.
Presidents in Mexico are restricted to a single six-year time period, so Lopez Obrador couldn’t search re-election.
Sheinbaum can even inherit a package deal of constitutional reforms initiated underneath Lopez Obrador, together with the judicial overhaul plan that opponents see as a worryingly autocratic transfer by the governing occasion.
On the core of the proposal is a plan to elect federal judges – together with Supreme Court docket appointees – by well-liked vote. Lopez Obrador has mentioned the change is required to root out corruption.
However detractors say the plan will compromise the independence of the justice system. Final week, judicial staff, together with judges, went on strike to protest the scheme.
Earlier this month, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar warned the proposed judicial modifications – which embody placing judges up for election – might threaten “the historic business relationship” between the 2 nations.
The US is Mexico’s high commerce associate.
“Democracies can’t operate with no robust, unbiased and non-corrupt judicial department,” Salazar advised reporters, prompting a powerful response from Lopez Obrador.
The Mexican president described the criticism as “disrespectful” to Mexico’s “nationwide sovereignty”.
Presently, federal magistrates in Mexico are chosen by means of an analysis course of, together with exams, overseen by a judicial council.
Supreme Court docket justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
On Sunday, Lopez Obrador defended the judicial overhaul plan, saying it could be sure that judges are “on the service of the folks” and suggesting it could restrict prison affect within the courts.
Reporting from Mexico Metropolis, Al Jazeera’s John Holman mentioned Lopez Obrador listed his achievements throughout his speech, specializing in his efforts to fight poverty in Mexico.
“I feel critics and supporters alike would help that concept – that he has lowered the variety of poor by means of direct credit score transfers, by a raft of social programmes, pensions for the previous and grants for college and college for the younger,” Holman mentioned.
He added that Lopez Obrador additionally talked about rooting out corruption in Mexico, however “there’s so much much less proof for that”.
Not that it mattered to Lopez Obrador’s supporters – on Sunday, essentially the most broadly seen indicators round Zocalo Sq. had been people who simply said, “Gracias” – “Thanks”.
