Perverting the course of justices: Mexico’s judiciary

0:10Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist. I'm Rosie Bloor. And I'm Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:25Though Nigeria is known for being rich in oil, that doesn't translate into having a steady energy supply. Power cuts are common, which is a drag in daily life and an obstacle to the country's ambitions. Our correspondent seeks some light in the darkness. And the hottest gadget of the summer, literally, is a backyard one-pizza oven. The results speak for themselves. Our correspondent looks into why so many people go to the trouble of making the most easily had takeaway food on the planet.

1:01But first...

1:09The past year has been pretty good to Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

1:18She won a landslide victory last June and took office in October. She's enjoyed high approval ratings from the public. Her security policies, focusing on better intelligence, are more successful than those of her predecessor. And she's come out well in what might easily have been a nasty bust-up with a capricious neighbor. And I spoke to the president of Mexico, a wonderful woman. Too bad, then, that her next big plan for the country is so fundamentally flawed. A few countries elect a handful of judges, mainly to lower courts. But on June 1st, Mexicans will vote in the first of two rounds of elections to replace the judiciary from top to bottom.

2:01Sarah Burke is our Mexico City bureau chief. It's a terrible idea. It's very dangerous for democracy and bad for the economy. Before we get to why it's a terrible idea, how did it come about in the first place? Well, this was one of the final parting shots of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, shame-bound's predecessor and mentor. And he wanted to elect all the judges. And so he passed a constitutional change. And then she pushed through, as soon as she came to power in October, the implementing legislation. Now, Morena, the party, argues that the election of judges is needed to make Mexico's judiciary more democratic.

2:40They argue that it doesn't work. And there's some truth to that. The judiciary is not brilliant. But this is not the way to solve it. So this time around, Mexico is going to elect judges to 850 federal posts, all nine Supreme Court seats. There's some 22 jobs on powerful tribunals, including the disciplinary one, and thousands of roles in local courts. In two years time, in 2027, the idea is that the second vote will be held and the rest of the judiciary will then be elected too. I mean, I feel like I have a good guess here, but tell me why this is the terrible idea you say it is. Well, there are good reasons why most democracies don't do this.

3:17Judges are supposed to uphold the law impartially and answering to voters makes it more likely that they're going to only uphold popular laws. And there's meant to be a separation of power. They're meant to be experts in law. Now, it's an even worse idea in Mexico for a couple of reasons. So one is that you have almost a single party state at the moment. Second of all, you have a problem with corruption and organised crime. And the third problem is that Mexico's vetting process for this system, which they rushed in extremely quickly, the vote is taking place only months after the legislation was passed, is really very paltry.

3:50So you only need minimum requirements to stand, a law degree, some pretty good grades, and a willingness to take part in the new system. And so what you have is many current judges who are saying, you know what, I'm not standing. And therefore, you're ceding the bench to a lot of people who might be good, might not be good, but they are novices who often haven't stepped foot in court, at least not to judge. Given the political expediency of doing this, presumably this isn't the only country to have tried it. Has it worked anywhere else? I mean, it is the only country to have tried it at every level.

4:23So you do have several other examples of places that have elections. The US is one, but they're at state level. Switzerland also elects some judges. The most relevant experiment with this is probably Bolivia. It's in the same region. It has some of the same features as Mexico. And they've elected Supreme Court judges since 2011. Really, it's been a bit of a disaster. The court's authority has been undermined by endless political squabbles to control it. And two fifths of Bolivians who voted in the most recent election spoiled their ballots. And in Mexico, there are even greater dangers. There's the control of the justice system, not just by politicians, but also by drug gangs.

5:01Now, we've already seen in Mexico that criminal gangs are very happy to kill or threaten or try to influence public officials, mainly at the local levels, to get what they want. And it's very likely they're going to do the same with these elections as they do in local elections. So it's clear how this move might benefit the gangs. How does it benefit Moreno, who's worked so hard to bring this into being? To understand this, Jason, it's good to take a step back and remember that the courts, especially the Supreme Court, struck down many of López Obrador's signature policies as unconstitutional.

5:32So it's hard to see this not as an attempt to have revenge or have control of the court. Now, the way that it's doing this in entrenching its political dominance is by influencing who gets onto the ballot. So there are three vetting committees, two of which were controlled by Morena. And then there's a tribunal which will be elected to discipline judges if they do something wrong. And the candidates for that who are also to be elected have been vetted by these two of three committees controlled by Morena. And so you're going to have an influence. And the other thing is the turnout. Turnout is expected to be very low.

6:08Only 7 % of voters showed up in 2021 to vote in one of López Obrador's referenda on whether in that case he should prosecute a handful of former presidents. And so I think what you're going to see is the people who do turn out to vote are those who have been mobilized, encouraged, possibly even bust by Morena, and are likely to therefore be told whether explicitly or implicitly who to vote for. That sort of undermining of the rule of law and the pliant public that seems to come with it, it's not just the judiciary that's getting it in the neck here, right? This is bad for Mexico more generally, surely.

6:40I mean, it's very bad for Mexico more generally. The rule of law is essential for democracy. And one of the things you've seen in Mexico is the gradual dismantling of many of the checks and balances, the independent agencies. Morena controls both the executive and the legislative. And so therefore, really, the courts were the last check. And I think what you're seeing now is that potentially there will not be that check on Morena's power. But the other problem is for the economy. Mexico really desperately needs investment and an economy that is not as sluggish as it is. And private firms are not likely to invest in Mexico if They think the courts can't enforce their rights.

7:17And the other problem is that an elected judiciary may also breach Mexico's free trade agreement with the US and Canada. So really, this is increasing the danger for Mexico's export-led economy, which is already under assault by Trump. All in all, whatever way you want to look at it, this doesn't bode well for Mexico. Thanks very much for your time, Sarah. Thanks, Jason.

7:53more nigerians live in the dark than anywhere else in the world outages are part of daily life and the national grid transmits less than a tenth of the energy its people need a country that wants to be africa's economic powerhouse can't even power its own houses. So many of my childhood memories revolve around power or the lack of power. Oret Ogunbi is our Africa correspondent. I have memories in my grandma's house of using kerosene lamps in the evenings when the generator wasn't working or having to pull the rope to start the generator because there was no light. And even now we just find different ways to cope, whether that's solar-powered inverters, diesel generators.

8:40But power cuts in the middle of the night have basically become the norm. Nigeria's population of about 220 million people need an estimated 80 ,000 megawatts of power, yet the country's grid has never, ever transmitted more than 6 ,000. For context, Bangladesh, which is a country that is a sixth of Nigeria's size, is doing three times that. So we're all really behind, we're all struggling with the lack of power, but we're just finding a way to make it work. So what's going on, Ori? Why is Nigeria so underpowered? The short answer is that this is a culmination of decades of underinvestment and mismanagement into really key infrastructure.

9:17You've got energy bills that are still lower than the cost of actually providing that energy. And governments get a bit nervous about changing that because obviously it's quite sensitive. And these artificially low tariffs have then just become more and more unsustainable over time. The government can't afford it because the currency is weak and then as the grid is getting bigger because more people need more power, who is paying to keep those tariffs low? In addition to that, you then have subpar infrastructure, which means that there are bottlenecks at every stage. There's not enough power being generated, not enough being transmitted and then not enough being distributed to households.

9:50So you've got half the country that's not getting enough power and you've got the other half that has never been connected to the grid that's getting no power at all. You said that there's not enough power being generated. I thought Nigeria was rich in oil. What's going on? Yeah, that's the unfortunate irony of it all. So most of the country's power actually comes from gas plants, which is derived from that crude oil that you were talking about. But pipelines getting vandalised, crude oil getting stolen, and also gas plants just not working properly all mean that we don't generate as much power as we could be.

10:24So for example, last year, only a third of Nigeria's 27 gas powered plants operated at more than half of their capacity. Then to make matters worse, there's actually a price cap for gas suppliers that means that it can sometimes be cheaper for the gas suppliers to just burn off their excess gas than to sell it to generation companies who don't always pay up and then leave them with big debts. And you said there are problems with transmission too. What's going on there? Yeah, Rosie, that's where the next set of bottlenecks come in. So transmission, the national grid infrastructure, is still completely owned by the state.

11:00And that's even though the state can't afford to maintain and upgrade and just expand that infrastructure to the people who need it. And maybe if Nigerians were paying the true price of energy, as I mentioned earlier, then they could, but they don't. Because the infrastructure is so dilapidated, the grid can only take from power plants what it can actually afford to transmit without collapsing. And these collapses are actually a big problem. We had 11 grid collapses last year. So this then creates another bottleneck. And then moving on to distribution companies who are supposed to take on that power from the grid and connect it to people's homes.

11:35They too can only take on what they can afford to distribute and also to profitably sell. So when people don't pay their bills, by the way, the government is the biggest offender when it comes to non-payment of bills. That means that the distribution companies don't make their money back. And when there's excess electricity in the grid, that actually ends up getting sold to neighboring countries instead, even though there's a whole half of the country that actually could do with this energy. So what's the solution? I think the reality is that most people have adapted. Rosie, this is ultimately a 40-odd year problem and people have found ways to make things work.

12:09So whether that's the big companies or the very power-intensive industries like data centres, for example, they build their own power plants, whether that is households who have solar-powered inverters so that they can have electricity when the grid fails. People have found ways to cope. I think people are also depending more and more on renewables. So even the government, for example, says that it's aiming for 50 % of that power generation in the future to come from renewables. You have people who are working with development partners, for example, on more isolated projects. So whether that's getting a solar powered mini grid to a rural community, whether that's powering an entire university with a more hybrid solution.

12:48But I think the challenge is attracting investment to a sector that has historically been so terrible at managing money is not the most easy task for the people who are trying to. I mean, why would anyone want to put money in a sector that has never been profitable in its entire history? So ultimately, how does the lack of power or unreliability of power hold Nigeria back? Nigeria should be an economic powerhouse. There are pools of talent. It's supposed to be an innovative tech hub. it is the center of Africa's fintech industry. These are all things that require power. These are all things that could be really big and bustling industries if they weren't having to spend so much on diesel for their generators and building their own power plants before they can get anything off the ground.

13:32So I think ultimately, even though people have found ways to work around it with their generators and solar panels, the biggest industries are still going to rely on there being good and reliable grid power. And until as a country, this sector is able to attract more investment and the kind that can really help maintain that critical infrastructure, this is just going to be a thorn in everyone's side. All right. Thank you so much. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me, Rosie.

14:15I live in a small town that's more than 10 miles and less than 50 from New York City. John Fasman is our senior culture correspondent. It was founded in the late 19th century by Italian immigrants, and a lot of the town's residents are still Italian-American. We have six individually owned, family-run pizzerias for a town of 11 ,000. Each of them is good enough and distinct enough to have its own fans, And what that means is if you transplanted them off the northeast coast of America to somewhere else in this country, each of them would probably be the best place around within 100 miles. And that raises an important question, which is why bother making pizza at home?

14:58The truth is, it's generally pretty easy. You ferment some flour, water, yeast, and salt into a dough. You put some sauce on top. You put some cheese on top. The sauce and cheese are pretty standard. the problem comes when it's time to make your pizza. And for a long time, pizza enthusiasts had three choices when it came to the ovens. You could use the conventional oven that everyone has in their house. The problem is because that oven doesn't get much above 250 degrees Celsius, the pizza takes a long time to cook. And it's going to be, by comparison to your pizzeria pizzas, pretty flat and dry.

15:31You could also buy a pizzeria oven if you had tens of thousands of dollars and some space to spare. or if you really liked projects and had a decent sized garden, you could build an oven of your own. But there is a fourth option that's emerged in recent years and those are portable ovens. These are generally just big enough for a single pizza and they're fueled by wood, propane or electricity. They tend to be dome shaped so the heat is reflected down so it cooks the top as well as the bottom. And the great thing about these ovens is they're pretty reasonably priced. You can get a decent one for$250.

16:08You can get a really good one for a little bit more than that. The sales of these ovens started taking off during the pandemic when pizzerias were closed, but they've remained pretty strong because it really is a wonderful way to cook. It's fun, it's social, and it produces wonderful pizza. Here, let's spread them out, give them room.

16:33now unfortunately i don't have one of those fancy tabletop pizza ovens and i don't have one of those very complicated dad built brick ovens we're making pizza today on a big green egg which is a sort of combination smoker and tendur it can smoke meat for a long time at low temperatures but if you put in a lot of fuel and open up the vents it can get up to five or six hundred degrees and with a stone on top it can make great pizza.

17:02And there we go. The fire is lit. We just have to wait for the stone to warm up. So let's go make some pizza. Now, I happen to think that different fuel sources don't really affect the taste of the pizza that much. What matters is the heat. The oven is going to get blazingly hot. 900 degrees Fahrenheit, around 450 degrees Celsius. It's going to take about 90 seconds to cook. if you've lit a nice clean fire, whether it's wood, propane, even coal with some New York ovens, or electricity, it's going to be hot enough that what you're going to taste is the pizza. The reason heat matters is that the hotter the oven is, the more the crust will sort of puff up and get that sponge and get that wonderful taste of char on the outside.

17:42But you can get that with any fuel or with electricity. So the question is, why would anyone do this when a pizza is always just a phone call away? to my mind there are three reasons the first is taste pizza that comes straight from the oven onto your plate is just a lot more delicious than the same pizza 30 minutes later partly stuck to a cardboard box the second reason is that it's social if you make enough dough so that six or eight people can have their own you get a bunch of toppings you get a bunch of cheese everyone can customize it to their own tastes all of a sudden you have a party in your backyard and the third reason, of course, is pride.

18:24Nothing beats the feeling of serving someone a pizza that came from your own oven that you made with your own hands.

18:39It's very good. The bottom of the crust has leopard spotting, which I've never been able to get with the oven. And it's very dark, like how you get with a real brick oven pizza. Good? Good.

19:03That's all for this episode of The Intelligence. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

19:20Thank you.