▲ The Supreme Court yesterday installed its Specialized Committee on Transparency, which has not met since 2023.Photo Luis Castillo
Iván Evair Saldaña
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, p. 8
The so-called new Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) yesterday accused the integration of the previous plenary session of having left a “great lag” in terms of transparency, which violated laws, the federal Constitution and even international treaties, since requests for citizen information pending since 2019 remained unanswered.
During the installation of the Specialized Committee on Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data – which was attended by representatives of the three powers of the union – Minister President Hugo Aguilar Ortiz pointed out that this body “never worked” after its creation, since its last session was on April 26, 2023, when Norma Piña Hernández had been at the head of the Court for just four months.
“I am sure that those who make up the committee will work hard to reduce the gap we have in this area and in many others. We have found a Court with many gaps.”
The new integration of the plenary session of the high court, elected by popular vote, has a special commitment to democracy and transparency, he said, and maintained that an active and vigilant citizenry of its institutions is essential for an authentic democratic life, and that the authorities must act in the face of the people.
Pending subject
Made up of three ministers, the committee was installed with Arístides Guerrero García as president, who highlighted that transparency in the country’s highest court “is a pending issue.” He explained that between 2020 and 2024 the Court received 13,410 requests for information, of which 2,550 correspond to 2024.
He highlighted that until yesterday, the committee did not meet for 863 days, which left many review appeals unresolved, some accumulated since 2019 and 2020. This inactivity, he assured, implies non-compliance with the Constitution, the General Transparency Law and international treaties such as the Escazú Agreement.
“Not having met since 2023 implies five years without resolving review appeals; it implies that there are review appeals that have been pending since 2020 and compliances that have existed since 2019,” he commented.
open justice
He explained that the committee, also made up of Minister Sara Irene Herrerías and Irving Espinosa Betanzo, will promote “true open justice”, with full transparency and early publication of sentences. Added accessibility measures – translation into indigenous languages, tools for people with visual disabilities, an artificial intelligence chat and a app to consult failures – and mentioned QR codes, which allow real-time access to the projects discussed in public sessions.
The event was attended by the head of the Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Secretariat, Raquel Buenrostro, who highlighted that the installation of the committee will be a coordination opportunity to strengthen the new national model of guaranteeing access to information and data protection, focused on people and, especially, priority groups.
“It is not about starting from scratch, but about correcting what was not working,” he said.
The president of the Senate, Laura Itzel Castillo, stated that the committee “guarantees Mexican men and women their right to know and consult the information in the hands of the Court.”
In addition, he reminded the ministers that the 2024 constitutional reform, promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum, simplified structures, reduced costs “and the so-called golden bureaucracy,” and created a new legal framework on transparency and data protection that consolidated the national system of access to information.
