Mexican Senate cancels trusts for judiciary worth over $800 million

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday voted to terminate 13 trusts held for the judiciary, ratcheting up tension between the government and judicial authorities, which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador argues are corrupt and hostile to the public interest.

The Senate, controlled by Lopez Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and its allies, approved the measure to do away with the trusts worth some 15 billion pesos ($820 million).

Last week, the lower house of Congress voted to wind up the trusts, whose funds are due to be absorbed by the government.

Mexico’s Supreme Court said this month the elimination of the trusts will affect workers in the judiciary, pointing to their pensions and other social security benefits.

The government denies this.

Lopez Obrador has blasted Mexican judges for ruling against his efforts to tighten public sector control of key sectors of the economy such as energy, and has put pressure on the Supreme Court to slash the pay of its justices.

The 69-year-old leader argues the public sector is bloated and often in hock to powerful private interests. Throughout his term he has sought to make savings in government to help free up money for his popular social programs.

“How does the judiciary benefit the Mexican people, or the majority of Mexicans? It doesn’t at all, on the contrary … it’s an authority at the service of a rapacious minority, serving the oligarchy,” the president said earlier this month.

Critics of Lopez Obrador see the judiciary as a bulwark against his efforts to concentrate power.

Before he leaves office at the end of September 2024, the president wants to change the constitution in order to have judges and magistrates elected by the public. Mexican presidents are by law restricted to a single six-year term in power.

($1 = 18.3019 Mexican pesos)

(Writing by Dave Graham, additional reporting by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Michael Perry)