Leaders | Constitutional chaos

A make-or-break moment for Mexico

In America’s biggest trading partner the rule of law and democracy are under attack

A supporter holds statues of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum while attending the state of the union report in Mexico City, Mexico on September 1st 2024
Photograph: Getty Images

ELECTED in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador set out to remake Mexico. But the past six years will pale next to the coming four weeks. The country held presidential and parliamentary elections in June which the ruling coalition won by a landslide, in effect giving it a supermajority in Congress. It was clear back then that Mr López Obrador would try to use this supermajority to ram through a series of constitutional changes in the month during which his presidency overlaps with the new Congress. As The Economist warned at the time, it was also clear that many of these changes would profoundly damage Mexico’s democracy and economy.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Constitutional carnage”

From the September 7th 2024 edition

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