Protestors storm Mexico's Senate in effort to halt reform eroding Supreme Court appointments, checks and balances

Protestors stormed the Mexican Senate on Tuesday, temporarily suspending debate as lawmakers discussed a controversial judicial reform bill. The interruption occurred after demonstrators pounded down the doors of the upper house and stormed the Senate’s session hall.

The debate, which resumed after the interruption, was centered on a constitutional reform that would allow Mexicans to elect all judges by popular vote.

The judicial reform passed the lower chamber of Congress last week, but López Obrador’s far left coalition had to achieve a supermajority to approve it in the Senate. The bill was ultimately approved with 86 votes in favor, 41 against with no senators abstaining from the vote.

The incident initially prompted Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Noroña to evacuate the hall as to prevent any violence with the demonstrators.

Video captured of the incident depicted angry demonstrators pounding on the Senate doors while others waved the Mexican flag from the Senate gallery above. Some senators who opposed the judicial reform reportedly cheered on the protestors in a wave of support and camaraderie.

So far, the Senate communications team has only reported one injury.

The sweeping constitutional changes are being pushed by incumbent Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has waged a war against his nation’s Supreme Court for blocking some of his party’s major legislative changes.

Mexican Supreme Court judges are currently nominated by the president, but must be confirmed but the Senate, as part of a process that is similar to the United States.

Federal judges are chosen by a judicial commission that administers coursework and professional exams to grade candidates’ judicial knowledge and expertise.

The new judicial reform bill, however, would erode that process and turn the judiciary over to the popular masses.

López Obrador, widely recognized as a far left populist, has argued that the reform is necessary to eliminate judicial corruption, but critics of the reform say it erodes the country’s system’s system of checks and balances that limit presidential power.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar called Mexico’s proposed shift to electing judges “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy,” and CNN reported that “legal experts say the proposed procedure would turn Mexico into an international outlier.”

Business groups, concerned about the lack of consistency and checks and balances the reform may cause, have warned the reform is partially to blame for the diminishing value of the Mexican peso.

Once implemented, the reform will add judicial elections to ballots next year, forcing an estimated 7,000 judges to fight for their seats.

Those who lose will have to relinquish their seats to a newly elected jurist.

The sweeping changes come as López Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) political party continues to become more powerful. His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, who was elected in June also supports judicial reform.