In Mexico, thousands gather for defense of electoral authority

In Mexico City, thousands of people gather to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's proposal to overtake electoral authority, which will remake the National Electoral Institute.

Opposition parties and civil society organizations had called on Mexicans to demonstrate in the capital and other cities against proposed electoral reforms that would remake the National Electoral Institute, one of the country’s most prized and trusted institutions.

López Obrador sees the institute as beholden to the elite, but critics say his reforms would threaten its independence and make it more political. The initiative includes eliminating state-level electoral offices, cutting public financing of political parties and allowing the public to elect members of the electoral authority rather than the lower chamber of Congress.