SCJN opens main door to allow passage to protest against reform

Mexico City. After being closed to the public for almost two years, the main door of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) opened this Thursday to let out more than a thousand workers of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (PJF), who organized a demonstration against the initiative to reform that sector and tried to surround the building of that high court with a human chain.

The demonstration called by the College of Young Law Students and New Professionals of the Court was attended by workers from the administration to area directors and coordinators of the ministers’ reports, and more from the PJF joined in, which according to participants increased the number to more than 2 thousand people.

Between 3 and 4 pm, when the protest lasted, the slogans prevailed: “If the people are informed, the reform will not pass!”; “You can see it, you can feel it, the Court is present!”; “And we are not the opposition, we serve the nation!”. There were only two speakers, one of them José de Jesús Cruz Sibaja, who is known as “the voice of the Court” for being the leader of the plenary sessions.

“Today, the invitation is to the people of Mexico to participate in an effective dialogue and to know that there is a judicial career with professionalism and that the independence and impartiality of people is defended, and it is for the benefit of democracy, freedom and justice in Mexico. That is the issue that this rally raises for us today,” urged Cruz Sibaja.

But during the workers’ protest, which was joined by staff such as Judge Juan Jaime González Varas, coordinator of the report of Minister Margarita Ríos Farjat, there were indirect confrontations with protesters who were holding their sit-ins outside the Court and passers-by, who shouted and demanded at them such as “corrupt, thieves and get to work.”

The central intention of the call for PJF employees was to form a human chain surrounding the rectangular building that houses the Court in the Historic Center, which has an area of ​​7,828 square meters, but between the disorganization and local police barriers that initially prevented them from passing over Erasmos Castellanos and Corregidora streets (which border the National Palace), the chain was not closed.

However, as workers made their way through, they only managed to march along the streets to go around the building, shouting and repeating their slogans: “You can see it, you can feel it, the Court is present!” and “You can see it, you can feel it, San Lázaro is present!”, referring to the PJF workers who joined in.