Edward Murillo
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, September 6, 2022, p. 4
It will be this Tuesday when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) decides whether or not to invalidate the informal preventive detention (PPO). During the first session on the matter, four of the 11 ministers rejected Luis María Aguilar Morales’ proposal to disapply
Article 19 of the Constitution, a criterion that would put international human rights treaties above the Magna Carta.
When in the Constitution itself there is an express restriction on the exercise of rights, the Supreme Court must weigh that restriction in the light of international human rights and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Aguilar said.
I am not the one to detach leaves of the Constitution
expressed in turn Minister Alberto Pérez Dayán.
He stressed that the SCJN does not have the power to decide that the Magna Carta be declared unconstitutional, regardless of international treaties. The treaty is due to the Constitution, not the Constitution to the treaty
he explained.
Ministers Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, Loretta Ortiz Ahlf and Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá agreed on this, pointing out that only the Congress of the Union can order changes to the Magna Carta.
division of powers
Minister Loretta Ortiz warned that the non-application
of the Constitution by the SCJN would question the division of powers and the rule of law.
It would be a fallacy that, while we are called to defend the supreme law, we call to disapply it
Ortiz stated.
The same position was expressed by Minister Yasmín Esquivel: “Can a constituted power –including this Supreme Court– fail to observe and comply with the Constitution and privilege the observance of an international treaty against the express letter of article 133 of the Constitution itself, the Magna Carta itself? My answer is blunt: we can’t.
Some of the ministers indicated, however, that the PPO could be invalidated, but only based on the principles of the Constitution itself and not based on international conventions.
That case part of a harmonious and systematic interpretation of the first and 19th article of the Constitution, prioritizing the importance of always maintaining the integrity of our Constitution and rejecting the proposal to disapply a rule that is part of the control parameter that we have committed to respect and protect
Gonzalez explained.
Rethinking is possible
The discussion will continue today and it seems difficult for Aguilar Morales’ project to achieve the eight votes necessary to be approved in its original terms, unless he modifies it, which he would have to raise in this session.
While the ministers discussed, outside the headquarters of the SCJN a group of Morena supporters demonstrated against the disappearance of the PPO. One of them, José Ramón Puente Gómez, state councilor of the party, affirmed that if that precautionary measure were repealed all the big organized crime could get out of the prisons with great ease
.
