LatinNews Daily - 6 November 2024

*Mexico’s supreme court (SCJN) has rejected a proposal to invalidate key parts of a controversial judicial reform, which was approved by congress in September. Seven of the 11 SCJN justices voted in favour of the resolution, which declared parts of the reform were unconstitutional, falling one vote short of the eight needed to approve the proposal. The proposal, which was submitted by SCJN Justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, responded to challenges filed by the opposition after the approval of the reform. The right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and centrist opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) slammed the result of the SCJN vote, with the PAN stating it would “exhaust all legal instances, both national and international, in the face of the decision of a minority of the SCJN that puts democracy in our country at risk”. While it had been expected that three SCJN justices would reject the proposal, the fourth and deciding vote against, cast by Justice Alberto Pérez Dayán, was somewhat unexpected. The ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) has widely celebrated the result and commended Pérez.