Mexico City. On October 11, on the instructions of Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, the General Directorate of Special Affairs of the Secretary of Foreign Relations, in charge of María Araceli de Haas, announced the recruitment of young people to be part of the Mexican Foreign Service (SEM) temporarily , under article 7, however, two days later he withdrew from the measure.
Without detailing or making transparent what the selection process would be like or how many positions would be filled, the circular announced that a curricular review would be carried out to hire young people between the ages of 25 and 40 to join the consular network in the United States.
Article 7 of the Law of the Mexican Foreign Service establishes that the appointments of temporary personnel may not exceed 18% of the total number of positions authorized for the SEM, in addition to the fact that they will be made, when possible, in positions that do not belong to the career SEM.
Likewise, said article stipulates that the temporary personnel required by the Secretariat shall be appointed by agreement of the Secretary, prior favorable opinion issued by the Personnel Commission, based on the profiles defined by said Commission for this purpose.
If the measure was promoted, the SRE would have failed to comply with what is marked in Article 4 of the Regulations of the SEM Law, “The Personnel Commission will prepare, update and periodically publish in the Official Gazette of the Federation the profiles referred to in article 7 of the Law, observing the specialized functions or specialized professions that, at a given time or context, the Foreign Service requires; the number and ranks in which said functions are required and in what assignments, with the purpose of covering the needs of the Foreign Service in an effective and efficient manner”.
On October 13, without giving details, another circular was issued announcing that the communication of October 11 was without effect.
Ambassador Arturo Puente, consulted by El Economista, highlights “the lack of legal certainty, because the criteria for promotion are not known, nor when the exams will be held, nor how many places there will be.”
Delay in contests
On September 12, 2019, the SRE announced that it had reached a record number in appointments of career members of the SEM as head of Representations of Mexico abroad, with 115 appointments, that is, 74%, of the following years not figures have been reported. The Economist has requested an update of the number of political appointments, however, it has not been provided.
Ambassador Arturo Puente questions: “What did they intend with the aforementioned circular? Break the law to benefit who?”
