Mexico - April 2023

On 17 and 18 April, Mexico’s Supreme Court (SCJN) issued two rulings that reduce some of the power the military had recently been granted. Firstly, the SCJN limited the armed forces’ ability to intercept communications between citizens. It comes amid recent revelations that the current government and military have spied on journalists, human rights activists, and opposition politicians and that the Mexican military was ‘the first and most prolific’ user of the Pegasus spyware, which had been allegedly used to spy on civilians as recently as the second half of 2022.

Second, the SCJN declared that transferring control of the National Guard (GN) from the Public Security Ministry to the defence ministry (SEDENA) was unconstitutional. Government officials had claimed that the GN needs to be under the control of the military to prevent corruption and guarantee the force’s professionalism.

Although President López Obrador criticised the SCJN, the decisions have been received positively by national and international leaders.

Sources: El Pais, Info Bae, Civicus, The New York Times, Associated Press, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

On 3 April, Guadalupe Taddei was sworn in as president of Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), becoming the first woman to head the Institute. Her tenure will expire in April 2032. INE’s newly appointed councillor, Rita Bell Lopez highlighted that the Institute’s general council is constituted mostly by women for the first time, adding that, ‘We must construct an agenda from a gender perspective’. Taddei’s designation marks the second occasion a woman will head a key Mexican institution for the first time this year, following the election of Norma Piña as Supreme Court president in January.

Sources: El Pais, El Economista, Central Electoral, International IDEA Democracy Tracker