By Cassandra Garrison and Adriana Barrera
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate early Wednesday approved a sweeping judicial reform that will overhaul the country's judiciary by electing judges by popular vote, a profound transformation that critics fear could threaten the rule of law and damage the economy.
The reform marks a major win for outgoing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his final month in office.
In a marathon session that had to be paused and relocated as protesters broke into the Senate building, the ruling Morena party and allies clinched the final two-thirds supermajority vote needed to approve the reform, which has prompted protests, a strike by judicial workers and market volatility.
Senators voted 86 to 41 in favor as the ruling bloc cheered and applauded.
Mexico's incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum also celebrated the approval on social media, congratulating lawmakers on an overhaul that she argues fulfills the popular will.
"The regime of corruption and privileges is becoming a thing of the past and a true democracy and the rule of law are being built," she wrote in a post on X.
The approval followed a tense final legislative debate and high political drama as the ruling coalition began Tuesday one seat short of the supermajority needed to write the reform into the constitution.
But an opposition lawmaker broke party ranks to vote in favor of the bill, while another was absent amid allegations he had been detained to stop him from voting.
Leaders of Lopez Obrador's Morena party denied any wrongdoing.
"It's a sad day for our Mexico," said Senator Alejandro Moreno, president of the centrist opposition PRI party. The reform won passage thanks to "the worst tricks and under unimaginable pressures and coercions."
Lopez Obrador, who has often clashed with top judges, has repeatedly argued that the reform is vital to restoring integrity to Mexico's judiciary and ensuring it serves the people rather than elite and criminal interests.
Critics, though, counter that it will lead to an alarming concentration of power in Morena's hands.
Mexico's major trading partners, the United States and Canada, have warned the overhaul could undermine the USMCA trade pact by introducing significant legal uncertainties and negatively affect investment.
The reform has also spooked markets, with Mexico's peso weakening some 17% since the June 2 elections that saw Sheinbaum and Morena's legislative candidates win in a landslide.
As senators debated the reform on Tuesday, demonstrators broke into the Senate building waving Mexican flags and crying "traitors," forcing the session to be paused and moved to another location.
The backbone of the constitutional reform, which the lower house approved last week, calls for the first-ever election by popular vote of more than 6,500 judges and magistrates, including the Supreme Court.
In the Americas, only Bolivia has a similar system.
The reform also reduces the number of Supreme Court judges to nine from 11, cuts back the length of their terms to 12 years, abolishes a minimum age requirement of 35, and halves necessary work experience to five years.
Sheinbaum, who takes office on Oct. 1, will be tasked with managing the fallout of the reform, which risks dominating the first months of her term.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison, Adriana Barrera and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Alexandra Hudson, David Alire Garcia and Jonathan Oatis)
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