Multas to ministers benefited by accordions soften fines

Fabiola Martínez and Néstor Jiménez

La Jornada newspaper
Tuesday, July 29, 2025, p. 3

At the end of the inspection of 7,767 candidates of the judicial election, no contender to federal positions lost its triumph for this reason, and only a fine of 10 percent of the campaign spending top to 176 people was set, in that case, for appearing in the accordions. Only five local candidates lost their candidacy, but because of other irregularities.

Although, in the case of ministers, for example, 10 percent equals 146 thousand pesos, they would not pay that amount, but a minor, according to the payment capacity of each of those involved.

The result of this investigation caused a long debate and a vote divided among the members of the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE); In the minority block was President Guadalupe Taddei, who warned that the percentage of the sanction has no legal support, It is illegal and runs the risk of being discarded in the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF).

The president of the Institute voted against the penalty

Although he anticipated that the organ as a whole will be criticized for the level of the fines, and will say that the decision of the Council is a game or mockerythere is no Legal handle that can be sustained in the Electoral Court.

He also insisted, like his colleagues Norma de la Cruz, Rita Bell López and Jorge Montaño, in which the guides were prepared by third parties. There is no regulatory framework to define the scope of sanctions, which would scratch in the absurdsaid the Minister Norma de la Cruz.

On the contrary, the counselor Jaime Rivera said that only machinery with political or coercive power, and with abundant economic resources, could deploy that mass operation to induce the vote. Such political entities or organizations could be governments, political parties, guilds associated with parties or criminal groups.

Dania Ravel’s proposal did not prosper to also sanction, with 5 percent of the top, to the non -winning candidates, but they were also in the accordions, already sorrows, in a tight majority it was determined to admonish them. Also, open an investigation without defining the strategy of the authority, to investigate the multicited accordions.

Taddei stressed that the massive accordions are illegal, but does not imply that the INE in front of this situation with another illegality, that is, There is no legal grip that allows establishing a sanction from the top expenses, even more so that we are proposing 5 percent at this timehe said in front of his colleagues who did give the endorsement to the project: Carla Humphrey, president of the Supervisory Commission; Jaime Rivera, Martín Faz, Arturo Castillo, UUC-KIB Swords, and Claudia Zavala, although in the end he preferred to reject the project in search of the investigation not to conclude.

The president even questioned: “Where?

Despite the opposition of some, the sanctions were finally supported, in which they established not only fines for the printed guides, but also by the digital or disseminated accordions on the Internet.

At the end of the discussion there were 176 the sanctioned candidates. Of that figure, the double sanction was established. In that case are the nine elected ministers.

For example, his future president, Hugo Aguilar, was imposed a fine of 39 thousand 712 pesos for being mentioned in printed accordions, and the same for appearing in the digital guides, so he will have to pay 79 thousand 424 pesos. However, sources of the technical control unit clarified that they valued the second fine, according to the payment capacity of each person.

In total, the INE agreed fines for 10 million 364 thousand 410 pesos for candidates in the federal process, while for the renewal of judicial powers in 19 federal entities, the sanctions total 7 million 975 thousand 917 pesos. Of the 18.3 million that those involved will have to go to the INE to pay, more than 6 million correspond to the specific case of the accordions.

Once again, the concept of greater accumulation of irregularities is due to unpublished graduation (2.5 million) and unrelated discharge (1.5 million), as well as by unauthorized cash payments. In addition, in three cases, prohibited income for 1.3 million pesos were reported.