Iván Evair Saldaña
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, October 24, 2025, p. 12
By unanimous vote, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) yesterday fined Primero Empresa Minera, a subsidiary of the Canadian First Majestic Silver Corp, by determining that it tried to delay the resolution of the tax trial it faces for more than 2,868 million pesos, through an appeal of impediment with which it sought to remove Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa from the case, accusing her of misconduct of impartiality.
The sanction was minimal – 70 units of measurement and updating (UMA), equivalent to almost 8 thousand pesos – but the ministers highlighted its exemplary nature, seeking to close the door to procedural “arguments” that prolong the trials and generate the perception that the responsibility for the delay falls on them.
“It is evident that they do it in order to prolong the conflict, and, in that sense, I would be in favor of imposing a fine, because, if not, there is no way to stop these procedural tricks that tend to lengthen trials unnecessarily, and then it turns out that we are the ones responsible for making them longer,” declared Minister María Estela Ríos González.
The case derives from the direct protection under review 726/2025, still pending resolution in the Court, through which the mining company challenges a tax credit for 2 thousand 868 million 853 thousand 516.57 pesos determined by the SAT on November 25, 2019, for omissions in the payment of ISR, IETU, updates, surcharges and fines for the 2012 financial year.
Then, the company promoted the impediment appeal 44/2025 against Minister Esquivel Mossa, arguing an alleged lack of impartiality because it would have delayed the resolution of another case promoted by the same company.
Minister Arístides García Guerrero prepared the respective project, in which he proposed to the plenary session to declare the mining company’s allegations unfounded due to the lack of “objective elements” that accredit them.
Minister Giovanni Figueroa also stated that the company’s intention was to “delay the processing of the matter, in addition to not having demonstrated (the impediment)… that the risk of loss of impartiality could arise.”
Minister Lenia Batres spoke in the same sense, considering it necessary to close the door to delaying strategies. It is worth remembering that in recent months it denounced that Grupo Salinas filed more than 70 appeals before the Court to delay the resolution of three amparo lawsuits that, together, amount to almost 35 billion pesos.
