Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended his legacy in his last state of the nation deal with, an annual report on his authorities, a month earlier than he leaves workplace and is changed by shut ally Claudia Sheinbaum.
After talking for 2 hours in Mexico Metropolis’s sprawling Zócalo sq., López Obrador mentioned goodbye to his enthusiastic supporters on Sunday as he seeks to push by means of a significant overhaul of the nation’s courts.
Regardless of the controversial initiative, which critics say would weaken the judiciary, the Mexican president continues to get pleasure from a 73 % approval ranking as his six-year time period attracts to a detailed.
“We live in a real democracy, constructing a brand new homeland” and “laying the foundations to start a brand new period,” he mentioned in his speech.
1000’s of supporters of López Obrador, broadly identified by his initials AMLO, stuffed the plaza, which was crammed with a festive environment.
“I got here as a result of it’s the farewell of some of the historic presidents of the nation,” José Luis Díaz, a 39-year-old businessman, informed the AFP information company. “We won’t see one other president like him in 100 years.”
The presidential deal with is an annual assessment of presidency progress in Mexico, just like the president’s State of the Union deal with in the US.
On October 1, López Obrador will hand over energy to a colleague from his Morena get together, Sheinbaum, who was elected in June to be the nation’s first feminine president.
Presidents in Mexico are restricted to a single six-year time period, so López Obrador wouldn’t be capable of search re-election.
Sheinbaum can even inherit a bundle of constitutional reforms initiated below López Obrador, together with the judicial reform plan that opponents see as a worryingly autocratic transfer by the ruling get together.
On the coronary heart of the proposal is a plan to elect federal judges, together with these appointed to the Supreme Courtroom, by fashionable vote. López Obrador has mentioned the change is critical to root out corruption.
However critics say the plan will compromise the independence of the judiciary. Final week, judicial employees, together with judges, went on strike to protest in opposition to the plan.
Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar warned that proposed judicial adjustments – together with making judges topic to elections – might threaten “the historic commerce relationship” between the 2 international locations.
The US is Mexico’s essential buying and selling associate.
“Democracies can not operate and not using a sturdy, impartial and non-corrupt judiciary,” Salazar informed reporters, prompting a forceful response from López Obrador.
The Mexican president referred to as the criticism “an absence of respect for Mexico’s nationwide sovereignty.”
At present, federal judges in Mexico are chosen by means of an analysis course of, together with exams, overseen by a judicial council.
Supreme Courtroom justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
On Sunday, López Obrador defended the judicial reform plan, saying it might guarantee judges are “on the service of the folks” and suggesting it might restrict felony 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 each critics and supporters would help that concept – that he has diminished the variety of poor by means of direct credit score transfers, a collection of social applications, pensions for the aged and subsidies for college and college for younger folks,” Holman mentioned.
He added that López Obrador additionally talked about eradicating corruption in Mexico, however “there’s a lot much less proof of that.”
Not that that mattered to López Obrador’s supporters: On Sunday, the most-seen indicators within the Zócalo Sq. have been people who merely mentioned: “Thanks.”