Mexico City.- Workers remain in a sit-in at the Palace of Justice in San Lázaro with the slogan that they will defend the Judicial Branch, they are not “carried off” and the reform proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a “vileness.”
For Alejandro Lozano, a worker at a labor court, the most difficult thing was to get the participation of the majority of workers, since they believed that there was not much left to do to stop the reform of the Judicial Branch in light of Morena’s results in the last elections.
“But there is no worse fight than one that is not fought and the important thing here is to raise awareness in society about the impact that the vulnerability of one of the three powers can generate,” he said. The employee warned that the strike is indefinite and they are not willing to give in.
“We will not tire…for many of us this institution is our home and we believe and are convinced that we can achieve improvements not only for ourselves, but mainly for society.”
He said that although they have only been on strike for a few days, it has been difficult because it is “a genuine movement that is born from a working class base that is not financed or represented by external agents.” “All the people who (participate) pay out of their own pocket to be here; to provide food, supplies, to bring their tents, their chairs, and I think that part will always be the most complicated, the economic issue,” he commented.
‘It is vile’
Since last Sunday, Ulises Chávez Torres, a worker at the seventh collective civil court of the first circuit, has been actively participating in the strike at the Palace of Justice in San Lázaro.
He believes that the reform to the Judicial Branch will not only affect the judicial career, but will also cause businessmen and drug traffickers to finance judges, magistrates and ministers, which will cause them to owe favors. “We have been coming here since Sunday night and closing. On Monday, our colleagues arrived and it was closed with chains and padlocks,” he said. On Monday, August 19, he had to take the night shift and sleep in this office. Beyond feeling tired, he indicated that he was scared by the rumor that existed regarding the possibility of the National Guard acting. “The hardest thing was the first day because of (the rumor) that the president could authoritatively throw the National Guard at us. Since I was little, I have respected the Armed Forces and the Police as well… , but it is wrong for the president to use the Armed Forces against the people,” he mentioned. He assured that the people of Morena themselves do not agree with the reform to the Judicial Branch. “My friends, who I also have in Morena, have told me themselves that they are not even in favor of what the high command is doing. It is not fair that they are giving the country the upper echelons, that what the president is doing is vile.”
‘They want to co-opt the PJ’
María Eugenia Gómez Villanueva, a judge of the sixteenth Collegiate Court of Labor Matters in the first circuit, considered that it is essential to raise one’s voice against the reform, because far from seeking to strengthen the comprehensive justice system in the country, it seeks to co-opt the Judicial Branch of the Federation, end the judicial career and is a frontal attack on judicial independence.
“All Mexicans have the right to justice administered by independent judges, that means that we judges resolve without any type of interference or external pressure, we have to resolve according to what is in the files, according to the evidence, according to the law, but never subjected to any type of external power or any other type of interference and that is what happens with this reform. “Currently, judges are chosen by judicial career and on the basis of various competitive examinations of all the people who occupy the judicial career, from officers to magistrates. The election of judges by popular vote is directly attacking those selection processes that are based on experience, constant training, professionalization and specialization of all of us who belong to the Judicial Branch of the Federation,” he explained. He assured that unlike what the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has expressed, those participating in the strike are not brought in. “All the workers who are here today, regardless of their union affiliation, are here freely, spontaneously. They organized themselves, they made the decision on Monday to strike and we as the Judiciary joined them today. So, here no one is forced, here no one comes brought in, here no one receives anything, but it is a commitment to Mexico,” he said. What are you waiting for with this strike? He was asked, “We hope to be heard, we hope that this reform, these modifications do not pass in Congress. “There can be no reform as it is proposed,” he said. “The day that a reform is proposed with a good diagnosis, that involves all the actors and that it is really evident that it will be to strengthen the justice system, to improve it, that would be an excellent reform. Until that happens, we will be here defending the Judicial Branch of the Federation, defending the Constitution, the declaration of powers and judicial independence.”
#tire #Judiciary #home
