In Win for Mexican Leader, Top Court Approves Referendum on Former Presidents

Mr. López Obrador, who frequently lashes out at journalists, government-accountability advocates and autonomous institutions, last month proposed asking Mexicans whether the former presidents should be held accountable for alleged wrongdoing before, during, and after their terms.

The five governed from 1988 to 2018, a time Mr. López Obrador calls the “neoliberal period,” which he blames for Mexico’s troubles—from poverty and inequality and widespread violence by organized crime groups.

None of the five former presidents, all from parties now in opposition, have been charged with any wrongdoing.

A number of Mexican constitutional lawyers dismissed the proposed referendum as an unconstitutional exercise that would violate due process and the presumption of innocence, saying it was more about harming political rivals ahead of next year’s midterm elections than the pursuit of justice.

Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar, who is close to Mr. López Obrador, argued that the result of the referendum wouldn’t be binding for the attorney general’s office, and that the vote wouldn’t stigmatize the former presidents. The vote is set to take place in August 2021, two months after midterm elections, a top electoral official said.

A minority of justices argued that justice cannot be put to a vote and that authorities are in any case required to investigate any possible crimes.

In recent days, Mr. López Obrador has publicly pressured the court to approve the referendum, saying he would send a proposal to change the constitution if the court rejected it.

“The Supreme Court gave in to the president’s pressure. It’s a terrible day for justice in Mexico,” said Javier Martin Reyes, a lawyer and scholar at the CIDE university, in a tweet.

Many analysts saw the court’s decision as bad news for the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary from a president whose Morena party controls both houses of Congress and most state legislatures.

They see the proposal as a political distraction amid the coronavirus pandemic—which has caused nearly 78,000 deaths according to the official count—and the lack of policy successes from his administration. The economy is expected to contract almost 10% this year and criminal violence has yet to abate.

“The referendum is basically a political tool ahead of the midterm elections to divide society between the people and the enemies of the people,” said Eduardo Bohórquez, the head of nonprofit Transparencia Mexicana.

Critics say that since taking office two years ago, Mr. López Obrador has concentrated power in his own hands, weakening autonomous government agencies like the electoral institute and energy regulators. A Supreme Court justice who was politically opposed to the president resigned last year, the same day the government froze the judge’s bank accounts.

Opponents of Mr. López Obrador say free speech is also under attack. Nearly 700 intellectuals and others, in a recent public letter, asked Mr. López Obrador to stop attacking the press and his critics. Mr. López Obrador denies limiting freedom of expression, but says he has the right to respond as most opinions in the press are against him.

Three of the five former presidents belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico for much of the last century, while two were part of the conservative National Action Party, which ruled from 2000 to 2012.

Mr. López Obrador’s accusations against them have been mostly political, such as privatizations of state assets under Carlos Salinas de Gortari who governed from 1988 to 1994, and a multibillion-dollar bank bailout under his successor, Ernesto Zedillo. Mr. López Obrador has said the privatizations and bailout were corrupt deals.

Mr. López Obrador has said Vicente Fox rigged the 2006 presidential election, which Mr. López Obrador lost by less than 1 percentage point, and says Felipe Calderón, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, ignored corrupt deals between his top security officials and drug lords during the fight against cartels.

He has said his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, was bribed by Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht SA with contributions to his 2012 presidential campaign and to secure passage in Congress of a landmark oil reform bill. The bribes were allegedly paid to the campaign and were used to bribe legislators.

Messrs. Salinas, Zedillo, Fox and Peña Nieto couldn’t be immediately reached for comment and haven’t made public comments on the ruling. Mr. Calderón has said the proposed referendum violates individual rights and accused Mr. López Obrador of abuse of power.

Write to Juan Montes at [email protected]