Thousands protest in Mexico against cuts to electoral watchdog

Tens of thousands of people turned out across Mexico on Sunday to protest against legal changes passed this week to slash the electoral agency’s budget, fearing that it put the country’s hard-fought democracy at risk. Dressed in shirts, dresses and hats in pink and white, the colours of the electoral institute INE, protesters marched to the capital’s main square to hear speeches by a former supreme court judge and an ex-congresswoman. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had pushed the package of laws passed by Congress this week, alleging that INE was corrupt and captured by conservatives. Rights groups have said that the changes put the credibility of Mexican elections at risk.