Emir Olivares and Laura Poy
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 2, 2024, p. 12
One day is enough for the Judiciary to resolve the matter regarding the millionaire debt to the treasury of businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego for 25 billion pesos, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“There is no turning back (…) it is almost a done deal,” he emphasized at yesterday’s morning press conference at the National Palace; while highlighting that with that amount, scholarships can be provided for one year to all preschool students in public schools in the country.
Once the Judiciary returned to its activities yesterday after a 20-day vacation period, the president urged that a resolution be given to this controversy as soon as possible.
He recalled that a court had already ruled in favor of the Tax Administration Service (SAT).
It’s just that it’s meant to be resolved in one day. I’m already like the one who wanted to resolve everything in 15 minutes. But, well, 24 hours, 24 hours.
he pointed.
—Do you trust that the Judiciary will side with the government or Grupo Salinas?
—There is no way around it, because it has already gone through all the instances, it was even in the Court, and from there they sent it to the Tribunal, and in the Tribunal they ruled in favor of the SAT, and again it returns to the Court, so there is no way that now the SCJN says that it is up to them to see the matter, right?, because this matter is already about to be defined.
The head of the Executive explained that this case It doesn’t require much study
by the Judiciary because “it was dealt with in a courtroom, it is almost res judicata, it is just saying: ‘it is not up to the Court’.”
In response to a question about the members of this power They are busier
Organizing to protest against judicial reform, the Tabasco native retorted: It is something that they will resolve in one day, two days. Then they will go on strike. Besides, they have every right. They should take this out, which is urgently needed, because it is 25 billion pesos.
.
He exemplified that the size of the debt of the owner of Grupo Salinas is such that it is similar to this year’s budget for the pension for people with disabilities, which is 27 billion pesos; and the universal scholarship program for the 5 million students enrolled in high school was almost 40 billion.
It is important to remember that the Supreme Court Justice, Luis María Aguilar, archived the file on the tax debt of a company belonging to Salinas Pliego for almost 10 months.
It was not until the case became clear during a morning press conference last October that the Supreme Court ordered the judge to return the case to the courts for a decision.
