The judicial reform approved by the legislative committee and to be discussed in the Congress of the Union “is based on mistaken ideas” about the Judicial Branch of the Federation, and is based on an official discourse without evidence from the Federal Executive, said in an interview with El Diario the federal Control Judge, Víctor Manlio Hernández Calderón.
The judge pointed out that the narrative of corruption and nepotism that permeates from the Presidency of the Republic, in the morning conferences of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, does not have a solid basis, with data or evidence to prove his claim.
The fallacy of widespread corruption
In fact, “what is intended is to capture the three powers of the Union by a single will – the Executive branch –,” he mentioned. The data, however, are presented in the opinion discussed in the Constitutional Points Commission. There it is indicated that within the Government Impact Survey, collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, citizens were asked if they have given bribes before the Federal Justice to expedite their procedures, and how much they trust this instance. The figures from the 2023 edition of the report indicate that 20.9% of people bribed the administrative staff of the institution to be able to move their processes, and that only 39.4% of citizens trust this power. However, Hernández Calderón pointed out that internal figures from the Federal Judicial Council place at 0.07 percent of the total staff (which is more than 55 thousand workers) those who are being investigated for possible acts of corruption. And with this figure, he stressed that, then, the efforts of the Executive and the Legislative should be against that small percentage. “If the true intention was originated by corruption, we must go against the people who are detected,” he said. In addition, regarding the accusations of nepotism in the PJF, he said that there are regulations that seek to ensure that this phenomenon does not exist within the institution. The reform “is not legitimate, and there is misinformation, manipulation of information, sending the message to the community that these problems are the origin of wanting to change the Judicial Branch of the Federation.” Now then, the citizens’ distrust in judges comes from different fronts, according to Hernández Calderón. To begin with, “if the head of the Executive is saying every day that we are corrupt, without any proof (…) definitely people are stuck with that information.” But also “we have not had as judges and as PJF the ‘malice’, so to speak, to contact society directly. Our work has always been internal; “We have spoken about this through our rulings, (but) it is clear that people do not know this.” Federal magistrates Roberto Blanco Gómez and Octavio Pineda Toribio warned about this problem since Wednesday, the lack of assertiveness in communication with the community, in the first open discussion to the public as part of the activities during the work stoppage that began on August 21. State magistrate José Luis Chacón Rodríguez agreed. But it is not too late to begin this exchange of information with the citizens, said the federal judge, especially because nothing has been approved yet.
Faceless judge and other inventions
The judicial reform, approved as a ruling by the Constitutional Affairs Committee, underwent some modifications on August 26, which were discussed in this space. The original initiative of the Federal Executive made on February 5 had already undergone changes presented on August 16, prior to the debate in the instance prior to the plenary session. On August 26, the figure of “faceless judge” was added, which implies that the persons subject to criminal charges do not know the identity of the person in charge of their case, to avoid reprisals, an issue that contradicts what is established by international standards, according to national media. This measure, together with the selection by lottery of candidates for the positions of the PJF, are for Judge Hernández Calderón “occurrences that do not resolve any of the situations that are being attributed to the Judicial Branch, which are the origin of this reform project, such as alleged corruption, nepotism and the delay in the administration of justice.” The same reform also provides for a four-month period to resolve criminal cases in which the prison sentence is less than two years, in accordance with the principle of “prompt and expeditious justice” contained in the Mexican Constitution. “In the world of idealism we would like to resolve cases in a month, but to do so we need infrastructure,” said the interviewee. In Juárez, the Federal Criminal Justice Center has six judges (one of them for Execution), and they only have two rooms to hold daily hearings on any part of the criminal process for federal crimes, which is not enough, according to Hernández Calderón. “Materially it is not possible.” “There is no talk of issues that limit prompt justice. The Judicial Branch of the Federation receives less than 1 percent of the Federal Expenditure Budget,” he explained. According to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), the PJF received 78,327 million pesos for the current year, which represented a record of six thousand 454 million pesos of what was proposed. The budget for 2024 was the lowest for this power in the entire López Obrador administration, and represented a cut of 3.6 percent compared to 2023, added to the extinction of the 13 trusts in October 2023, for which there was also a work stoppage. The total federal budget was nine trillion 066 thousand 046 million, which gives a percentage of 0.86 percent of public spending allocated to the Judicial Branch. Hernández Calderón concluded by pointing out that “what is worth saving from all three powers in our country is the PJF.”
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