Adios to Mexico’s Democracy
June 3, 2025
A big story of our time is the global democratic recession. For a while in the 1980s and ’90s, democracy seemed to be on a worldwide roll, an unstoppable force. Epitomized by the Second Russian Revolution. Thus Francis Fukuyama’s 1992 book, The End of History. But then history made a comeback.
More precisely, autocrats did, figuring out how to thrive in a Fukuyaman world, exploiting loopholes in democracy to neuter it. A current victim, a big one, is Mexico.
For most of the past century, Mexico was effectively a one-party state, all controlled by the PRI. Finally turfed out by voters, resulting in a succession of genuinely competitive democratic elections.
Then along came Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (it’s required to refer to him as AMLO). I recall hearing, on the radio, lefty “political activist” Medea Benjamin rhapsodizing about AMLO’s authentic “man of the people” wonderfulness. I wanted to be sick. Why are so many folks such suckers for bad guys?
I got AMLO’s number when he first ran for president, and lost, but then called followers into the streets to tie up the country trying to overturn the legitimate result. (Well, at least they didn’t storm the capitol.)
AMLO later ran again and won. Soon cementing my judgment of him. What a disaster of misguided policies; I’ll spare you details. Yet he somehow still has popularity numbers to die for.
Leaving office (term limited) in late 2024, his parting “gift” to Mexico was a massive judicial “reform,” making all judges elected rather than appointed. Confirmed by his chosen successor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Might sound democratic. But here’s the thing. An independent judiciary is a key check upon an authoritarian regime. AMLO’s initiatives were often stymied by judicial rulings. This is his revenge — a wholesale cleanout of the judiciary from top to bottom. To make all judges tools of the regime. Thusly nobbling the courts is a key element in the authoritarian playbook.
So who do you suppose controls the names on the ballots in all those tens of thousands of judicial elections all across the country? AMLO’s Morena Party, thanks to his popularity, already has a lock on Congress and all the levers of government, including the election machinery. With Morena controlling candidacies, the actual voting — very few citizens showed up — is an empty formality. So now Morena will dominate the judiciary too, strengthening a virtually impregnable hold on power.
Most sitting judges bowed out from this dicey process. Qualifications for new ones are minimal, so a lot of experience and institutional memory will be lost. Mexico already had a huge problem of rampant crime and police corruption, and with a now degraded and politicized court system, that will markedly worsen.
Meantime, a big part of it’s been drug gangs suborning police and other governmental forces, enabling them to run roughshod with impunity. Murders out of control. Now Judicial elections have given gangs a golden opportunity to insinuate their own guys into courts, by corrupting the process of getting names on the ballot and the voting. There’s much evidence that’s happened; the electoral authorities admit this, but say nothing can be done.
Gracias, “man of the people” AMLO. Adios, Mexican democracy.