Breathe
By Lilian Briseño
As is well known, shortly before the end of his term in office and after winning a majority in Congress, President López Obrador sent to this body a series of reforms aimed at modifying and, above all, weakening Mexico's judiciary.
With the two branches of government subordinated to the executive, AMLO and his successor would have practically a clear path to push through any constitutional change that may be required. This, of course, bypassing the division of powers that implies having counterweights and avoiding the concentration of power in a single body, as suggested by the separation and division of the executive, legislative and judicial powers in a democracy.
The point is that, since Mexico was constituted as a free and independent nation in 1824, it was established that its form of government would be that of a federal popular representative republic where power was divided, for its exercise, into legislative, executive and judicial.
And although this was established by law, the truth is that, in its two hundred years of existence, the division of powers has had more lows than highs, since presidentialism has been the strongest figure in Mexico almost since Independence, not to mention since the Constitution of 17. The urban legend is famous that if the president asked what time it was, the answer was: whatever time you say, sir.
However, since various changes were made in the past, and particularly since 2000 with the changeover, it is also true that the legislature and the judiciary have gained independence from the executive, becoming true counterweights to presidential initiatives.
Thanks to this, throughout the previous six-year term, AMLO encountered some opposition in the legislative branch and a lot in the judicial branch, managing to stop some of the presidential initiatives, which must have been a real headache for him. Stopping the great interference of these bodies in state affairs became almost an obsession of the president.
In order to do so in accordance with the law, it was necessary to have a qualified majority in favor of his party, which would give him carte blanche in Congress to modify the Constitution. And this was achieved in the 2024 elections, with the help of one or two "chapulín" who converted to Morenismo by fast track (see Yunes case).
Due to naivety, overconfidence or lack of vision, Claudia Sheinbaum supported the whole process to achieve these modifications, and did not visualize that, by achieving the qualified majority, she was creating a monster that would be difficult to control . For the first time in history, it seems that today Congress has as much or more power than the executive, let alone the judiciary, which has almost disappeared until further notice.
