Mexico City.- Once again, the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal confirmed that, with his statements, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador broke the impartiality, neutrality and equity in the electoral process.
The judges stated that during the morning press conferences on March 21 and 22 and April 12, the president conducted government propaganda during the prohibited period, and in two of them he made electoral statements.
The Presidency of the Republic challenged three rulings by the Specialized Court before the Superior Court, but the electoral judges upheld the decision.
At the March 21 conference, López Obrador, along with Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, listed federal government actions to address irregular migration.
However, it is claimed that they presented government achievements, which are prohibited during campaign periods.
In this case, the only thing that was revoked was the decision of the regional magistrates to attribute non-compliance with the precautionary measure, which was to delete the questioned statements from the conference, since it was confirmed that the Presidency did delete them.
The case was approved by three votes to two.
The president argued that the statements were intended to express a public policy to address the migration problem and were protected by freedom of expression; however, it was determined that he did violate electoral law.
On March 22, the President and Governor Cuitláhuac García not only boasted about the delivery of social support, they also spoke about the local electoral process, highlighting the attributes of the Morena candidate for Governor, Rocío Nahle, accused by businessmen and opposition parties of “illicit enrichment.”
López Obrador argued that in order not to violate the law, they would speak of the former Secretary of Energy, “figuratively,” but it was known who it was about.
“That person who is being harmed because of the season, you see, since it is the pineapple season, the mango season, the chayote season, from what I know, and I can confirm, that person is honest,” he said.
He also made a comparison about how Veracruz was before García, who is the Morena ruler, arrived.
“The Regional Chamber did properly justify and justify the reasons why it considered the violation of Article 134 of the Constitution, since from the analysis of the expressions and the context in which they were issued it was possible to conclude that, during the electoral campaigns, in a press conference, they positioned themselves positively in front of the citizens, so the application of sanctions provided for in the electoral regulations was valid.
“Public servants assigned to the presidency are considered to have a duty of care, due to their functions, to review and verify the information disseminated at a press conference, in order to ensure that it does not contain statements that imply an infringement,” he said.
The latter is due to the fact that, in all three cases, the spokesperson, the person in charge of Cepropie and the directors of Social Communication of the Presidency were incorporated into the Catalogue of Sanctioned Subjects and the Comptroller’s Office was notified to act accordingly, since when organizing the morning conference they are obliged not to transmit electoral content.
On April 12, the morning press conference focused on economic and social programs, public works by the Army, and the restitution of lands to indigenous peoples, and the president ended by talking about the electoral competition.
The judges therefore stated that it was correct to determine that the president had violated the neutrality, impartiality and fairness of the contest.
“The expressions denounced deviate from the institutional, informative, educational or socially oriented nature that official communication spaces should have, since they violated the guiding principles of electoral matters,” the Superior Court ruled.
In all three cases, it was confirmed that the president and the accused officials did use public resources for electoral purposes.
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