He recalled that last week Miguel Ángel Yunes assured, like all PAN members, that he will attend the session and vote against the Judicial Reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and emphasized that so far “he has not expressed a different position.”
As of yesterday, I have stopped having contact with @MYunesMarquez.
As coordinator of @PANSenatorsI demand that you, with respect but with absolute firmness, publicly speak out against judicial reform.
Let him keep his word to society.
The…
— Lupita Murguia (@LupitaMurguiaG)
September 10, 2024
Hours before the discussion and vote on the reform of the Judicial Branch, Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez did not attend the meeting held by the PAN bench in the Senate this afternoon.
The National Association of Circuit Magistrates and District Judges of the Judicial Branch of the Federation called on Miguel Ángel Yunes to reaffirm his commitment to democracy.
“These are times for democrats, to defend the continuity of our democracy and prevent the establishment of a regime that violates human rights and freedoms,” they said.
So far, the party led by Marko Cortés has not been able to communicate with the Veracruz legislator, who is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office of his home state, governed by Morena. The PAN also has no communication with the senator’s collaborators.
It has not been confirmed whether Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez will join the Morena bench, but if so, the ruling party would already have the qualified majority of 86 votes needed to approve the Judicial Reform.
Since July, Yunes Márquez has been investigated by the Veracruz Prosecutor’s Office on several charges: lying to authorities, presenting false documentation and committing procedural fraud.
The investigations led him to seek refuge in the United States until he obtained an injunction to avoid being arrested and returned to take the oath of office as senator.
His brother Fernando Yunes is also being investigated by the state prosecutor’s office, but for allegedly forcing workers of the state City Hall to attend, during working hours, the campaign of his brother Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez in 2021, when he was running for mayor of Puerto del Estado.
On Sunday night, senators approved in committee the controversial proposal to reform the justice system, which, among other things, proposes that judges, magistrates and ministers of the Supreme Court be elected by popular vote.
With 25 votes in favor and 12 against, the ruling was endorsed by legislators from the Constitutional Affairs and Legislative Studies committees. The project, which had already received approval from the Chamber of Deputies, was referred to the Senate for final discussion.
The proposal, pushed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently sparked a work stoppage in the government and has generated tensions with Mexico’s two main trading partners – the United States and Canada – and an abrupt depreciation of the currency.
Critics fear the changes to the system could weaken one of the checks on presidential power, harming the business climate in Latin America’s second-largest economy.
-With information from the Reuters agency.
