Washington.- The judicial reform proposed by the Mexican government could weaken the protection of human rights and security, leaving people exposed to impunity and abuse, according to an analysis by Stephanie Brewer, director of the organization WOLA.
“Mexico deserves an independent judiciary committed to human rights, as well as a justice system with a greater capacity to solve crimes and prosecute those who commit them, based on solid evidence,” Brewer said in an interview published on the organization’s website.
“The reform currently proposed is far from advancing towards those objectives, which are essential to guarantee access to justice in Mexico.” Brewer warns that the proposed procedure for the selection of candidates would imply a predominant role on the part of the MORENA party, which would make the election of judicial authorities filtered by political interests and flaws.
“If a political group were to dominate the executive and legislative branches (as is the current case of MORENA), said party would have a preponderant role in the integration of the Committees and/or the approval of new candidacies, which could result in a judiciary more aligned with the party in power, perpetuating, in turn, the risk of political influence in future nominations,” said the director.
“For this reason, the proposed model could facilitate the political capture of the judiciary.” Brewer contrasts the statements by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the judiciary is responsible for impunity. “As we analyzed in our report ‘Militarized Transformation,’ the overwhelming majority of cases of impunity in Mexico are not attributable to judicial authorities. This does not mean that there is no corruption in the judiciary or that it is not urgent to address it with effective mechanisms. But if it is a matter of locating where impunity occurs in crimes reported by the population, it occurs mainly at the investigation stage by prosecutors,” says the director. “In this context, judicial reform would lead to the continuation and deepening of practices of impunity and abuses against the population. If the government’s message is that a ‘good judge’ is one who does not release people, logically the election of those candidates perceived as less willing to order releases is encouraged, which could further weaken judicial control over the actions of prosecutors and security forces.” According to the interview, this would result in a criminal justice system with more room for omissions in investigations and illegal practices, which would disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people.
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