Today, the first battle in the Senate for the amendment to the PJF

Andrea Becerril

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 8, 2024, p. 3

The first battle for the approval of the constitutional reform on judicial matters will take place in the Senate today.

The Joint Committees on Constitutional Matters and Legislative Studies will meet to discuss a draft opinion that endorses, without changes, the bill approved by the deputies, which establishes the controversial election by popular vote of judges, magistrates and ministers, in addition to eliminating million-dollar salaries and benefits and creating a disciplinary court, in charge of applying sanctions to judges who commit faults or fail to comply with the new deadlines for issuing sentences.

The 38 members of the drafting committees are summoned to the building at Reforma and Insurgentes, but they have a plan B, in case workers from the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF) and other groups that have been on protest since Thursday prevent them from entering.

The document approved in San Lázaro will be passed without changes, explained the vice-coordinator of Morena, Ignacio Mier, because the opinion endorsed by the Constitutional Points Commission of the Chamber of Deputies – before the closing of the previous legislature – included more than 100 amendments to the initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, most of them at the suggestion of the members of the PJF themselves.

There are 104 changes to the federal Executive’s proposal, in which practically all 101 changes made to the initiative and which were part of the opinion sent to this legislature were incorporated.. He specified that 96 of them came out of the dialogues held as a complement to the national forums that had already been held. That is, more than 80 percent were at the request of PJF workers, judges and magistrates. In addition to this, three more were approved last Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies, Mier explained.

He explained that one of these modifications was to establish more precisely in the second transitory article what concerns the retirement and liquidation pay of magistrates and judges, in order to give them greater certainty and job security. The wording was proposed by the judges themselves.

He also highlighted, The suitability criteria were guaranteed, so that the most qualified and prepared candidates pass, and the number of candidates per position was raised from three to six, who will pass through all the filters, through an evaluation commission, made up of specialists, with clear foundations for the three powers, so that those who pass with greater rigor in the criteria of skills, professionalism and honesty are nominated..

However, he explained, Despite having incorporated their proposals for change, the members of the PJF continue to claim that they were not taken into account, which clearly shows that their movement is driven by 67 percent of judges and magistrates who were elected based on criteria not of judicial career, but of nepotism, caciquism and patrimonialism.

The presidents of the aforementioned committees, Ernestina Godoy and Citlalli Hernández, announced the agreement for debate in today’s session, in order to provide ample facilities for democratic participationgiven the interest it has aroused even among senators who are not part of these working groups.

A special format was set up that will include general and specific discussions, so the debate will last several hours. The draft opinion is scheduled to be presented, followed by a 10-minute intervention by each parliamentary group and three rounds with six speakers in each for general discussion, in addition to questions for the members of the drafting committees.

Approved in general, reservations will be presented. In the end, it is expected that the opinion will be approved with the vote of Morena and its allies, since in commissions only a simple majority is required and those of the 4T exceed it.