Jucopo considers actions against judges who intend to prevent reform

Mexico City. After two district judges granted suspensions that would indefinitely prevent the Chamber of Deputies from approving the ruling on the reform of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF), the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) of San Lázaro is already studying various possibilities to act against said judges, said Ricardo Monreal, president of said legislative body.

At the conclusion of the Jucopo meeting on Sunday, before the start of the ceremony to deliver the sixth and final government report of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Monreal explained that three courses of action are being studied against the district judges in question.

The first of these, he said, is to initiate impeachment proceedings against them; the second is to file a criminal complaint for various crimes against the administration of justice, and the third is to file a complaint with the Federal Judicial Council.

He explained that it was the Morena member Sergio Gutiérrez Luna who proposed it when he attended the Jucopo as a guest. However, “that was not agreed upon, I asked for it to be withdrawn in order to analyze the three actions in greater depth, but it is up in the air in the majority group.” Since it was not agreed upon, it was not voted on either, he said.

PAN against the possibility of impeachment

Upon her arrival at the San Lázaro legislative building, the coordinator of the PAN bench, Noemí Luna, criticized the impeachment proposals against the judges who ordered suspensions against the discussion of the reform of the Judicial Branch.

“How outrageous that we are in a moment in Mexico where exercising the law means danger. We as the National Action Party demand in this Chamber that we abide by everything that is in accordance with the law. Today there is a suspension, whether the judge was right or wrong will have to be decided, but what is certain is that there is a suspension,” he said.

“The other thing that is important to highlight is that they intend to take a ruling from the 65th legislature to be discussed in the 66th legislature, when 80 percent of those who enter as legislators did not have the opportunity to discuss the terms in committees,” he lamented.

Luna said that the PAN will ask for an agreement in the Jucopo to open “spaces for reflection.” At the same time, he described the annulment of the election in the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office as “terrible.”

Separately, former PAN presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya said the opposition is wrong and taking the bait by rejecting the participation of the population.

Despite the criticism of judicial reform from this political force, he said that “this does not mean that judicial reform is not needed. I want to be very specific about this. Mexico does need judicial reform. We have a very serious problem of impunity in the country.”

Regarding the reform presented by Morena, he said it is designed to have total control of the Judiciary, but he pointed out that if the Morena Parliamentary Group were open to discussing a judicial reform “that truly serves to reduce impunity, to improve justice, we would all have to support it.”

He then said: “I think the opposition is making a mistake, it is taking the bait by rejecting the participation of the people. Of course we need more people in matters of justice. In many countries around the world, popular juries determine whether a person is guilty or innocent.

“We need the participation of the people. That is a false dilemma. And I think the opposition is wrong when it rejects the participation of the people and the participation of the people. Yes to judicial reform, but no to a judicial reform that is designed to control the judiciary.”

He said that the PAN will present a proposal that includes “the participation of the people in the determination of the trials through popular juries.”

He pointed out that the discussion of this ruling will focus on the Senate, where, he recalled, Morena has not yet achieved a qualified majority. “I am absolutely convinced that no one from the PAN will bend and the call is for us to rise to the occasion.” “We will see who is the Judas of these 43 who are not part of the ruling party and who is going to sell their conscience. Let’s hope it is none of them,” he added.

Amparos, a “legal aberration,” consider Morena legislators

Since Saturday afternoon, various deputies and senators of the cherry-colored party have repudiated the granting of the injunctions that seek to stop the discussion of the reform to the PJF.

Hamlet García Almaguer—who yesterday took office as a deputy—stated in an interview that “the primary constitutional function of Congress is to legislate” and recalled that Article 135 of the Magna Carta establishes the requirements for a reform of the same, among which is the vote of two thirds of the Congress of the Union, and that the changes be approved by the majority of the legislatures of the states and Mexico City.

In addition, he said, in the acceptance of the appeals “there is a conflict of interest, because the plaintiffs and the decision-maker are judges, and the issuance of their sentences is to protect their privileges.”

On social media, he published a series of messages in which he denounced that “the Judiciary is on strike and wants to impose another strike on the Legislative Branch, so that Congress does not discuss, does not deliberate on judicial reform.”

He also recalled that “the Constitutional Laws of 1836 established the Supreme Conservative Power that had the power to suspend the sessions of Congress: 188 years later the idea was reborn in the hands of the Federal Judicial Power.”

“Nobody is going to stop us”

Also on social media, Senator Citlalli Hernández, secretary general of Morena, posted: “Beyond the legal aberration in which the judges who granted a suspension so that the ruling on the Judicial Reform is not discussed, what is evident is the arrogance and the factional use of the law, the lack of self-criticism and the contempt for the popular mandate that demands that the judicial power be reformed. They are not measuring the popular force that supports the reform and our majority, which will mobilize if necessary.”

For her part, the Morena deputy Irma Juan Carlos, who participated in the analysis of the reform to the PJF as a member of the Constitutional Points Commission, stated in an interview that with the injunctions granted today, “once again the Judicial Branch tries to invade these spheres of competence, it tries to control the Legislative Branch. It does not surprise us, because they always did that. They always tried to invade these spheres of competence of the Legislative Branch, as if the Judicial Branch were more.”

The above, he said, was demonstrated when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation rejected the so-called Plan A and Plan B of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

– Do these injunctions not hinder the discussion? Is there no way to stop this process?, he was asked.

– No, because there are three branches of government and each branch is autonomous: the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches are autonomous and each one exercises its autonomy and has its own powers. In this case, we have a popular mandate, which is to reform the Judicial Branch.

– Will your response be to continue with the legislative process as planned?

– Yes, that’s right. Nobody is going to stop us, least of all these district judges who are granting injunctions processed by themselves.