Mexico’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is charging ahead with his plan to have 1,600 judges fired and replaced with elected justices, setting up a confrontation with business, foreign investors and the US as he tries to cement his legacy in his final months in office.
The Mexican peso has shed more than 10 per cent of its value against the dollar since voters chose López Obrador’s protégée Claudia Sheinbaum to be president and unexpectedly gave the ruling Morena party and allies a near-supermajority in congress. Investors are also now demanding the highest premium since 2008 to buy Mexico’s benchmark 10-year bonds.
Investors fear damage to the business climate from the constitutional changes Morena plans to implement, especially a plan to fire the Supreme Court and hundreds of appointed federal judges and replace them through elections next year.