Mexico’s highly contested judicial reform went into effect Sunday. In recent weeks, judges and other court workers have launched a wave of protests against the judicial overhaul, which will allow for the election of judges by popular vote. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador celebrated the reform as he signed it into law.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador: “Let’s put an end to the simulation, because we also talked about living in a democracy, but, no, an oligarchy was in power. Those who ruled were the ones at the top, a minority with a facade of democracy. That was a simulation. Now it is different. It is the people who are in charge, and it is the people who decide how it is put into practice what Article 39 of our Constitution says, that our people have at all times the right to change the way of their government.”

President López Obrador was sitting next to his successor, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in on October 1.