“These funds have been suspended by court orders since 2018-2019,” warns the director of the Association of Circuit Magistrates and District Judges of the Judicial Branch of the AC Federation (JUFED), Juana Fuentes, in an interview.
“That is why at this time these resources cannot be used,” he says.
Sources maintain that trusts are “locked” since 2018, so, he assures, they will not be used to pay the costs of the election of members of the Judiciary in 2025.
They have not been available, Fuentes reports, not even for the purposes for which they were created: pensions, retirements, benefits and medical services for members of the Judiciary.
The leader of the judges recalls that former President López Obrador wanted to dispose of these resources by prohibiting, in the Federal Austerity Law, the creation of funds and trusts, as well as ordering their extinction and subsequent return of the money to the Treasury of the Federation ( Tesofe).
“At that time, amparo proceedings were filed and the suspension was granted. That is why the status in which these trusts are found is: in the process of suspension and JUFED has one of those protections, to prevent them from being used for a different purpose,” he states.
They see ‘multipurpose’ trusts
The federal government and Congress, through the majority of Morena, have tried to use the resources of the Trusts on up to five occasions, but they are still “alive” and in legal dispute.
After the 2018 reform, there was another intense dispute over these resources last year, when the Organic Law of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (PJF) was reformed, whose modifications came into force on October 27, 2023.
In that amendment, 13 of 14 trusts were ordered to disappear and the remainders, products and uses to be handed over to the Federal Treasury.
The objective, according to the approved decree, was open: “they will be allocated by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to programs that allow compliance with the National Development Plan.”
The discontent among the workers and officials of the Judicial Branch did not wait and, in addition to the JUFED, hundreds of workers and officials resorted to the protection.
But later, on October 25, 2023, Hurricane Otis hit the coasts of Guerrero and the then president López Obrador asked to allocate them to support the victims.
In a letter sent to the president by the minister president of the SCJN, Norma Piña, she admitted the use of trusts to support the affected population, as part of a State responsibility, although it was not specified.
Last April, Congress reformed various secondary laws to create a public trust and, by law, forced the Judiciary to transfer the funds from its trusts to transfer their resources to the so-called Welfare Pensions fund.
Last September, when the judicial reform was approved, Morena legislators proposed that the 2025 election be financed with said trusts, arguing that the pension fund already had 44,984 pesos “from other sources.”
“It is considered financially viable and appropriate to provide that the funds necessary for the implementation of the reform come from the resources of the trusts that are extinguished and reinstated for this purpose; this guaranteeing respect for the labor rights of the workers of the Judicial Branch,” was established in the opinion.
According to the ruling of the judicial reform, the balance of the trusts of the Judicial Branch then amounted – in September – to “almost 24 billion pesos”, although there is no official data that indicates that sum.
Even President Claudia Sheinbaum managed the figure of 23 billion pesos.
“It could even be allocated (to the election), as an exception to this purpose, part of the 23 billion pesos that the trusts have and that are going to be reported to the Treasury,” she said on July 2, already as elected president. .
“Many people wonder how much it will cost to organize the election of the 1,600 ministers, judges and magistrates. In an approximate calculation that we have made with actuaries and with INE personnel, who is empowered with this responsibility, between 3 thousand and 3 thousand 500 million pesos could be spent on the election, for a single occasion,” he said then.
“These trusts multiply more than Jesus’ fish,” the coordinator of Morena’s federal deputies, Ricardo Monreal, was recently asked about the multiple uses that have been sought to give them.
The Morenista only smiled and said he trusted that they will be available to guarantee the labor rights of judges dismissed by the judicial reform and to prevent workers from being affected.
In the tenth transitional article of the judicial reform, it also established a maximum period of 90 calendar days after the entry into force of the decree, which expires on December 16, to extinguish funds, trusts, mandates or similar contracts that are not provided for. in a secondary law.
That is, according to this constitutional amendment, only the Trust “2125 Support Fund for the Administration of Justice” would be maintained, whose amount is 836 million pesos and the local trusts covered by secondary legislation.
The following must be returned to Tesofe: “all of the remaining resources in said instruments, as well as the products and uses derived from them (…) and will be allocated by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to the implementation of this Decree and the rest purposes that it determines”, as endorsed.
That is why for deputies Monreal and Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, president of the board of directors of the chamber of deputies, there are resources to finance the election of judicial positions and The trusts are enough for that, and there will even be more.
