Mexico City.– Just hours before the debate in the Senate begins, the federal government presented a report in which it accuses the judiciary of benefiting criminals, interfering in elections, exercising nepotism and operating with complete impunity.
This morning, at a conference at the National Palace, Luisa María Alcalde – head of the Segob – presented the various “vices” that currently permeate the Judiciary.
“We know very well that the problem is not concentrated only in the Supreme Court, the problems and vices that we have observed in the Judiciary permeate the entire system. There is the case of the judges, the magistrates and also the case of the ministers, and there are several cases that we are going to present today,” he announced.
The first problem presented by the Mayor was the case of interference by the Judiciary in electoral matters.
In this case, he exemplified that, in December 2023, Minister Norma Piña – president of the SCJN – invited the PRI leader Alejandro Moreno, Santiago Creel – then campaign coordinator of Xóchitl Gálvez – and the electoral magistrates of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal to a private dinner at the home of Minister González Alcántara.
Likewise, Alcalde said that, in July 2024, a District Judge ordered the Electoral Court to appoint two vacant magistrates to qualify the presidential election, which was rejected by the Superior Court as being excessive and violating Article 99 of the Constitution.
As a third example of electoral interference, the Secretary of the Interior explained that, in August 2024, Minister Piña admitted an appeal by the PAN leader, Marko Cortés, for the Court to interpret and define the criteria for the allocation of plurinominal deputies in Congress.
Luisa Alcalde mentioned that there have also been flawed processes in the selection of judges and gave as an example the sale of exams for 186 thousand pesos for competitive examinations.
“We are also aware of the flaws that have existed in the supposed selection procedures for judges, the exams, and it has been said a lot that the best profiles become judges. We cannot ignore the scandals regarding the sale of exams that have occurred.
“Here we can see how even those who were in charge of the judicial school were dismissed for having sold these exams for 186 thousand pesos, but we can also see how in these competitive examinations the challenges are very high from those who do not pass the exams, because they consider that there is a high level of influence peddling and inequality; that is, that in these exams many times those close to the Ministers or those close to the magistrates pass,” he explained.
Luisa Alcalde also listed data that reveal the nepotism that exists within the Judiciary.
“We can also see the enormous network of relatives who participate in the Judiciary, nepotism. In December 2022, the Judicial Council itself reported, data from the Judicial Council reveals the following: half of the staff, 49 percent, which is equivalent to more or less 24,546 people, has at least one relative in the Judiciary.
“85.4 percent of magistrates and 67 percent of judges have relatives in the judiciary. Magistrates have an average of 4.7 relatives working in the judiciary. 23.7 percent of judiciary personnel have more than four relatives working in the institution, and the person with the most relatives in the judiciary has 26 relatives working in the same institution, including one magistrate, 13 secretaries, two clerks and 10 officials,” he listed.
The official questioned the effectiveness of the Federal Judicial Council, stating that, of the total of 38 thousand complaints filed against judges, between 2004 and 2023, 86 percent were dismissed without even starting an investigation.
He explained that, during this period, only 472 judges and magistrates have been sanctioned, but only with 292 warnings and reprimands; 102 suspensions, 41 dismissals, 23 disqualifications and 14 economic sanctions.
The head of Segob criticized the fact that judges and ministers have refused to reduce their salaries, which are below those of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
During his presentation, Alcalde warned that, without judicial reform, Claudia Sheinbaum would be in a position to appoint four ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and, thus, get seven of the 11 members of the Plenary to be allies.
“If that were the intention, there would simply not be any reform and things would remain as they are, but that is not the case. The reform that is being proposed is for the citizens to participate, for the people of Mexico, through a democratic process, to be able to go to the polls to vote for who they consider to be the best candidates to be ministers of the court, magistrates and judges,” he said.
Criminals released by judges are exhibited
During President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s morning press conference, a list of alleged drug cartel and white-collar criminals who have been released by judges was displayed, who have imposed 24-hour deadlines on the penitentiary authorities to allow their release from prisons.
The report includes cases from the Sinaloa cartels, Los Zetas, Jalisco Nueva Generación, Santa Rosa de Lima and the Tepito Anti-Union Force, but also cases against politicians such as the former head of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya; the Attorney General’s Office, Jesús Murillo Karam, and the former PRI governors, Mario Marín, of Puebla, and César Duarte, of Chihuahua.
“These are cases of judges who granted freedom to criminals on weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the classic Saturday night,” explained the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
Do they already have a majority?
In her speech, the Secretary of the Interior practically took for granted that Morena and its political allies, the PVEM and the PT, already have a qualified majority in the Senate of the Republic.
Although in the last few hours there has been uncertainty about the votes that the ruling party has “tied up”, Alcalde maintained that it is a fact that they have two thirds.
The official made the statement while explaining the current process for choosing the justices of the Court.
“The President really has the possibility of appointing directly and, in case of rejection, or if there is a two-thirds vote in the Senate, as is the case, then a majority could be formed,” he said.
So far, the coalition led by Morena in the upper house appears to have secured 85 votes, so it would be one short of obtaining a qualified majority.
In recent hours, pressure on the 43 Opposition legislators has increased and the PAN group has publicly expressed its concern about the lack of communication with the Veracruz senator Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez, who did not attend the plenary meetings.
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