Judicial Reforms in El Salvador and Mexico
By: Dina Ketteler
Nov 13, 2025
Authoritarian leaders often alter the judicial system to expand their powers. This week’s graph highlights the impacts of recent judicial reforms in El Salvador and Mexico.
The judicial reform indicator identifies institutional changes made in judiciary power and whether these changes affect its ability to control arbitrary use of state authority. The scale reaches from 0 (a reduction to this ability) to 2 (an enhancement), where 1 reflects no changes.
In El Salvador a series of judicial reforms from 2021 to 2024 curtailed the courts’s powers and independence. In 2021, President Nayib Bukele’s legislative supermajority was used to remove all judges from the Supreme Court of Justice and to appoint new ones without following constitutional procedures.
Bukele issued a state of emergency in 2022 to fight homicides and gang violence, limiting the judiciary’s ability to exercise their power. The extension of the state of emergency has not been approved by the Supreme Court and judges that do not comply with the political agenda have been removed. A legal reform passed in 2023 enables collective trials for up to 900 people, endangering the individual right to be defended in front of the court.
In Mexico, under the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the appointment of several new supreme court justices viewed as close to the government raised concerns about diminished autonomy. In 2024, judicial independence was further challenged by the adoption of a highly disputed judicial reform that politicizes the appointment of judges by shifting from merit-based appointments to popular elections.
Although the Mexican presidency changed hands in 2024 with the win of Claudia Sheinbaum, who is in the same party as her predecessor, the process of reforming the judiciary continued in the same manner.
A strong and independent judiciary is a key factor ensuring checks and balances to executive power and safeguarding democracy. Judicial reforms have the potential to either weaken or strengthen this ability. The judicial reforms in El Salvador and Mexico puts this important aspect of democracy at risk.
