The Court imposes more requirements on the UIF to block accounts

Iván Evair Saldaña

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, October 10, 2024, p. 8

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) yesterday issued a jurisprudence that imposes on the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Ministry of Finance more requirements to block accounts of alleged criminals at the request of a foreign authority.

In a session of the second room, the ministers approved with three votes to two the project by Alberto Pérez Dayán that resolved the contradiction of criteria 268/2023, an appeal filed by José Alfredo Cavazos Mercado, lawyer of the former governor of Tamaulipas Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Cow.

With the ruling, it was defined that foreign authorities that request the UIF to freeze a bank account must do so under a express requestso that there is legal certainty that the demand is in accordance with an obligation for Mexico expressly established in an international agreement or treaty.

Minister Lenia Batres warned that the powers that the FIU needs to fully comply with Mexico’s international commitments are being limited.

The criterion that is proposed, due to the excessive requirements that are intended to be established, constitutes a dangerous facilitator of impunity, since it is being required for it to be valid that foreign authorities expressly mention the blockade, and that the Mexican authorities review the powers and powers. of the foreignersargument.

Batres’ statements were refuted by ministers Javier Laynez Potisek and Pérez Dayán, pointing out that far from affecting the FIU, the processes that must be followed in said case are clarified.

No, the power that the FIU had to block an account is not being prevented. What is needed is the mechanism, that is, what the request made by the foreign authorities to address an express request consists of. That’s where the contradiction came from, if it was enough for an embassy authority, for example, from the United States, to indicate that they are investigating a group of people and that is enough to consider that they are demanding a blockade.argued Laynez.