Arturo Cano
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 13, 2024, p. 6
The proposed reform of the judiciary, and in particular the proposal for the popular election of judges and magistrates, will result in legal uncertainty for companies that may no longer invest in Mexico or will leave the country, stated the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) and organizations of lawyers and legal experts.
Luis Asali Harfuch, from the National Council for Strategic Litigation, summarized the arguments presented at a press conference called by José Medina Mora Icaza, president of the employers’ organization: What is being prescribed as medicine is the most lethal of poisons. It does not in any way help to eliminate corruption, but it does contribute to eliminating judicial independence and counterbalance.
.
Representatives of various organizations agreed in their rejection of several points of the initiative to change the law enforcement and complained of not having been heard. by the ruling party
because open parliaments They were not so open
Medina Mora said.
Changes in prosecutors’ offices are encouraged
The business leader acknowledged that it is A reform of the judiciary is necessary
but not one that ignores the strengths
of the current system, in addition to the fact that the discussion must also consider the prosecutor’s offices
since it is an integral system.
In the view of the speakers, the popular choice may compromise judicial independence
and would distance our country from international standards in this area.
Mariana Campos, director of Mexico Evalúa, stated: We are facing an attack on the independence of the Judiciary
which would have among its negative effects international liabilities for non-compliance
of instruments signed by Mexico, such as the trade agreement with the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
If the judges are elected by citizen suffrage, the speakers argued, The door may be opened to pressure from interest groups
contrary to the impartiality that the laws must maintain.
They also criticized the government’s assurances that the election would not have a budgetary impact. This seeks to conceal the costs of this election
and it is ignored that there has been a decrease in the spending authorized for the Judicial Branch, despite the fact that we are far from meeting international standards (18 judges per 100 thousand inhabitants, when in Mexico we have only four).
Nuhad Ponce Kuri, from the National Association of Corporate Lawyers, said that the proposal under discussion It does not guarantee that the process of administering justice is of better quality
and what is it not very feasible
that citizens can truly know the profiles of all candidates in order to choose in a reasoned and objective manner.
In 2021, the aforementioned association rejected the energy reform with similar arguments: that would violate the principles of legal certainty and legitimate trust
. The questions about the initiative sent by the President of the Republic have already had a first achievement: that It will not be the project that will be voted on in Congress in September
said Andrea Rovira del Río, of the Illustrious and National College of Lawyers of Mexico (INCAM).
The head of the federal Executive himself has made statements, the lawyer pointed out, that recognize the complexity of costs and implementation times
.
The ICAM representative continued, it is necessary that the government and its legislators listen to the groups of corporate lawyers because ultimately the investors listen to them: we are Those of us who convince them that Mexico is a place to invest
.
