TEPJF rejects reviewing content of AMLO’s book “Thank you”

Mexico City. The National Electoral Institute (INE) will not investigate the content of the most recent book by Andrés Manuel López Obrador – titled ¡ Gracias! – because doing so would incur prior censorship.

This was agreed this Wednesday in the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) by a majority of 3 votes to two, regarding the appeal of Xóchitl Gálvez to the dismissal of his complaint by the Technical Litigation Unit Electoral (UTCE) of the INE.

Although the speaker, Reyes Rodríguez, proposed that the UTCE analyze the matter, even if it was only to reject Gálvez’s request, his colleagues (Mónica Soto, Felipe Fuentes and Felipe De la Mata) said that doing so would be setting a bad precedent. “Only in dictatorial regimes are books suspended,” said De la Mata.

Initially, Reyes revealed that the UTCE did not have access to the book, despite requesting an electronic copy from the publisher. At that time they responded that they did not have that platform.

That is why the magistrate insisted that the UTCE should have insisted on obtaining a printed copy of the book.

In this context, the Unit rejected it under the argument that the complainant did not include the book but only links to journalistic reviews of the work.

Reyes Rodríguez insisted that the substance of the analysis – whether or not to agree with Gálvez, in the sense that paragraphs of the book constituted at that time anticipated campaign acts – corresponded to the Specialized Chamber of the TEPJF, while granting or not granting measures precautionary measures would fall to the INE Complaints and Complaints Commission.

On the other hand, the judges who rejected this procedure insisted that it is not up to this Court to remove a book from the market, especially in a country with a low level of reading per capita.

De la Mata further argued that reading a book requires the person’s will, and its restriction would be censorship.

“Should we burn all the books with which we do not agree in their content? Four sentences can affect or equity?

“Books are not censored. Are we also going to censor libraries? Are we going to burn them like in the 1930s, like in Nazi Germany? “, stated De la Mata.

Both Janine Otalora and the speaker insisted that the author is a public official and must be analyzed in light of the ongoing electoral process.

“We are far from seeking to prohibit the sale, but rather it is a body that decides whether parts of the book violate constitutional 134,” Otalora added.

De la Mata replied that it is not a good precedent to censor a book, because would we start with one and continue with others?

The president of the TEPJF, Mónica Soto, stressed that they did not have the book, so “when it comes to human rights, when in doubt, maximize.”

The resolutions of the Superior Chamber are final and unassailable.