Judge who disapproved of choosing judges by competition now challenges the reform

Jesus Estrada

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, August 29, 2024, p. 10

Chihuahua, Chih., In 2022, the president of the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Chihuahua, Myriam Hernández Acosta, endorsed, together with the PAN governor María Eugenia Campos Galván, a reform to the local Constitution that allows the appointment of state magistrates without a competitive examination.

However, on Tuesday night he led a protest against the reform of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF) promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, arguing that it eliminates the judicial career.

Hernández Acosta, who has never won a competitive examination, said that the initiative It’s a revenge and the Chamber of Deputies intends to approve it through a false process of legislative forums.

Since last July, she has met with the president, accompanied by the magistrates of the local court, with the aim of preparing a strategy of injunctions and other legal resources in rejection of the scheme of democratic election of judges.

Among the legal defense mechanisms, he proposed that the Chihuahua government hire international law firms specialized in the subject, from the Inter-American Court and request precautionary measures to prevent the application of the reform in the state Judicial Branch.

Publicly, Myriam Hernández declared that the PJF It is a counterweight to the abuses of the other two powers of the State, which seek to overwhelm us and see us as the courtyard of the house of power and democracy.However, in May 2022, together with Campos Galván and the PAN, he promoted a reform to Article 101 of the Constitution of Chihuahua, which eliminated the competitive examinations in the TSJ and allowed the election of magistrates without an exam, through a three-person political commission and not a technical commission.

He also argued that eliminating competitive examinations and the requirement of a judicial career to compete for vacant magistrate positions was fair because it eliminates privileges, in addition to the fact that Competitive examinations do not guarantee transparent procedures.