Land regularization, held back by “lifetime” charges of magistrates

Andrea Becerril and Victor Ballinas

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, January 20, 2023, p. 13

The president of the Senate Agrarian Reform Commission, Angel García Yáñez, regretted that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has rejected a reform aimed at to strengthen the administration of justice for peasants and ejidatariosby preventing the magistrates in the matter from forever in office and specified that at the beginning of the next session they must decide whether to accept or reject the observations of the federal Executive.

Separately, the president of the Senate, Alejandro Armenta, commented that the plenary session of that chamber will turn over to the ruling commissions this reform to the Organic Law of the Agrarian Courts, whose content was vetoed by President López Obrador, almost in its entirety.

Meanwhile, PRI senator García Yañez explained that the initiative of PT senator Geovanna Bañuelos was approved on February 2, after an analysis that included reviewing the legislative proposal with active and retired agrarian magistrates and with academics and experts. .

He explained that the reform established that the magistrates of the Superior Agrarian Court and of the Unitary Agrarian Courts, numerary and supernumerary, be elected for periods of 15 years, non-extendable, and not as is currently the case that they are appointed for six years, but they can be ratified and remain in office until retirement age, which is 75 years.

In other words, he explained, they are lifetime positions, for magistrates responsible for imparting justice and guaranteeing legal security in the tenure of ejidal, communal and small property land, asserting the rights of peasants, which is not always fulfilled with so many years of exercise in a magistracy.

The intention, he insisted, is to give opportunity to the new generations of judges and avoid corruption networks. Likewise, he added, it was established as a requirement to be an agrarian magistrate, to demonstrate not only five years of experience, but that this is in agrarian matters.

It would seem, he stated, that the federal Executive has in mind the appointment of someone who would not meet those requirements. He explained that the members of that Agrarian Reform Commission will meet to discuss the situation, aware that to reject the veto requires a qualified majority. It was not possible to locate the coordinator of the PT, Geovanna Bañuelos.