Thousands march against López Obrador’s institutional overhaul in Mexico

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Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans joined protests on Sunday against a radical overhaul of institutions driven by populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, calling it a threat to democracy.

During five years in office, López Obrador has cut the budgets of many of state institutions, and recently proposed that board members of the election authority INE and Supreme Court judges should be directly elected. He says his vision will save money and make authorities more accountable.

Civil society groups, academics and the opposition warn that the proposals would damage checks and balances. On Sunday, crowds wearing pink — the colour of INE’s logo — and waving national flags marched through Mexico City and other cities to reject the president’s vision.

“We spent more than 40 years building a democratic ladder,” Lorenzo Córdova, former head of INE, said in a speech in Mexico City’s main square. “Today, from a position of power . . . they want to destroy that ladder so no one else can climb it.”

In June, Mexico will hold its largest elections, including for a new president and congress. López Obrador’s protégé Claudia Sheinbaum, who is running on a promise to continue his project, is ahead of rival Xóchitl Gálvez in polls by double digits. The ruling Morena party is expected to win the largest numbers of seats in congress.

For 70 years Mexico had a system dominated by one party until its transition to democracy culminated in a presidential victory by the opposition in 2000. Since then, the country has been trying to bolster institutions that provide checks and balances on power.

López Obrador — who narrowly lost the 2006 election and claimed fraud — describes the past three decades as a neoliberal era that has benefited political and economic elites rather than the people.

“In 36 years of…