José Blanco: The Rebellion of the Togados

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The right are used to command and be obeyed without question. They have been dominant throughout the world for countless centuries. In Mexico, the Spanish Creoles and the new segment of mestizos members of the ruling classes inherited the oppressive Spanish colonial system, and believed that their privilege would live forever. Mexican colonial architecture speaks loudly: solid, stone buildings, to last without a time limit, just as the power of those corrupt classes was experienced. Considered the First Religious Monument in America, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico, according to the INAH, was built over 218 years by 16 architects on a cement slab cemented by 22 thousand wooden stakes, which have resisted earthquakes, fires and sinking for more than 400 years. Colonial Mexican architecture is of that almost eternal nature: domination and power were to last forever and ever. Like everything, the time was theirs. Was.

The officers of the Judiciary, especially those of the SCJN, are of that ilk, direct descendants of the colonial style. They constitute the judicial establishment of our days. They believe themselves to be an illustrious part of an imperishable power, separated from the ordinary people below, revolted today, who cannot be postponed again.

For the right, Mexican history had an unfortunate interregnum between 1910 and 1940, when commoners believed they could reinvent the world, but that happened. Lázaro Cárdenas went too far, stirring up and making the vassals profane, who should never have been released from the chains with which they had remained bound as decent people command.

After 1940 things began to return, more and more quickly, to the correct channels: those from above, above, without fail and without regard. Wealth for the few. To those who cross the line, sticks, jail or death. Peasant leaders, or teachers, or doctors, or railroad workers, or students: beatings, prison or death. The robes, to their function: protection of those above; indifference and oppression of those below. Then came neoliberalism. Those in robes dedicated themselves to taking care of it to the fullest extent of the law, first of all sheltering the rampant corruption of those at the top, whether they thrive in the public or private sector. Nothing has been hidden. Fobaproa must serve to fleece those from below, with the eternal protection of the judicial establishment. The law belongs to those who work it.

We were going so well, and another annoying interruption came. 2018 arrived and Andrés Manuel stopped the much-loved neoliberal reality on its head, with 30 million votes. Now it is worse, because there was a revolution of consciences. So the togados feel forced to take things back, again. To finish it off, these town ruffians did it again, now with nearly 36 million votes.

For the SCJN there was no other choice, it was necessary to launch the rebellion of the robes: the guardians of the Constitution against the Constitution: they are going to review if it is correct the reform of the Magna Carta. It’s absurd, it’s an aberrationsay some conspicuous voices. The robes know this better than anyone, but they were left with no other recourse. The SCJN defends the Constitution tooth and nail as long as what it dictates is interpreted for the good of those at the top and its judicial establishment.

The SCJN is dead against the election of the togados, and it is not alone; She is accompanied by the political, media, and economic right. PRI and PAN have celebrated the rebellion. As soon as the eight votes of the Supreme Court approved admit up for discussion if they are authorized to analyze judicial reform, it does not seem that they can turn back. The reform, in addition, is being cannoned by judges of all caliber and multiple courts in the country. The SCJN robes will surely move towards complaints before foreign governments and international institutions. They are not seeking to reverse the reform of the Judiciary, because there is no legal form to do so. But they have already opened a constitutional crisis that they seek to enlarge and maintain for as long as possible. It is about hindering and destabilizing President Sheinbaum’s government as much as possible. That the legal processes stagnate, that nothing is resolved in the courts, that the protections cannot be passed. Maintaining a permanent disagreement between the Judicial Branch and the Executive and Legislative powers constitutes a constitutional crisis. That agitation, mistrust, fear, suspicion take over the greatest number of citizens is the execrable objective of the judges.

Not falling into the provocation of the togados can be a difficult goal to maintain. Their ladies and gentlemen of the SCJN have lost everything at this point: they have nothing more to lose and, therefore, they can organize their guerrilla of twisted lawfare: a strange, half-baked constitutional status, while the election of the judges takes place in June 2025 .