There is no spokesperson at this rally, but Angélica Manríquez, an advisor at the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), takes the megaphone and shouts – in the middle of the protesters surrounding her – that the reform leaves aside merit for accessing positions in the Judicial Branch.
“A reform that is supposed to elect its judges and ministers by popular vote is a reform that is deceiving them. The only thing the President of the Republic wants is to accumulate more power, because he knows that without this constitutional counterweight there will be no one to review the constitutionality of his laws and acts,” the woman shouts amid applause.
The protesters walk from the Monument to the Revolution to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). It is not more than 3 kilometers away, but on this route they meet the participants of the 2024 Mexico City Marathon.
Some support them with shouts of “let’s go” or simply applaud them for going out into the streets to express their discontent; others, surprised, ask “Why are you demonstrating?”, to which a woman answers “AMLO wants to eliminate the Judiciary”, but others attack them with words “People wonder who these are, they are lazy people who screw the Nation,” says a man while pointing at the protesters.
(Yared of the Rose)
Children also join in
“Judiciary, national defense,” “Mexico is listening, this is your fight,” shouts Íker, a nine-year-old boy, slogan after slogan without ever staying quiet. On some occasions, photographers approach him to take a picture, but nothing stops the boy.
Iker accompanies his father Siriaco Barrios, who is an independent lawyer, to protest against the reform of the Judicial Branch, because the man says he is taking him to raise awareness and to make him aware of what is “wrong” in the country.
“I don’t want to leave my son a legacy that could affect him. I’d rather he die screaming than die silent. That’s why I’m bringing him here so that my son knows what’s wrong in Mexico, to make him aware and not to expose him,” the lawyer says, his voice breaking.
Iker is not the only child at the demonstration. There is also Julian, a seven-year-old boy, who is accompanying his mother Brenda, who has been working in the judiciary for six years and is now a court secretary.
The boy also shouts the slogans he learned at home, such as “Judiciary, national counterweight”; while his mother takes him by the hand and covers him from the sun with a hat. She says that she brings the boy to the demonstration to fight for “just” causes.
“I brought him here so that he knows that we must fight for just causes and we must not remain silent in the face of injustice,” said the woman, who defends the judicial career and claims to have benefited from this path.
