That sentence has not been followed. “Today any Public Prosecutor’s Office simply needs to accuse a citizen to end up in jail for months or years without the mediation of a court,” warns García Rodríguez, already freed by the CoIDH ruling, but who is still litigating his case.
“We trust that the SCJN, as the head of one of the powers of the Mexican State, will effectively comply with the resolution of the Inter-American Court, placing the defense of human rights, judicial independence and the autonomy of the highest court at the center of its actions,” says Hernández.
The professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana-Puebla also mentions that “there are a significant number of cases that are in the freezer,” which is why he points out that it is an issue of greater relevance.
“If the previous Court decided to postpone it or not enter into a conflict, then this Court, which has said that it is coming to change things, should demonstrate it in the facts,” he maintains.
In the country, currently, there are 230,000 men and women deprived of their liberty in various prisons, both common and federal; due to the application of informal preventive detention there are 50,600, which represent 22% of the total, while 37%, that is, 85,100, are deprived of their liberty due to justified imprisonment.
The other cases in the Court on preventive detention
In addition to that case, processed as a file on receipt of rulings from international courts 1/2023, there is another with code 3/2023 for a ruling issued earlier, in 2022, by the CoIDH.
In it, Mexico was also condemned for having kept Jorge Marcial Tzompaxtle Tecpile, Gerardo Tzompaxtle Tecpile and Gustavo Robles López in informal preventive detention for 17 years, without the crimes of which they were accused having been proven.
A third frozen case is the resolution of an unconstitutionality action filed by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) against reforms to the National Code of Criminal Procedures and eight other federal laws on informal preventive detention, promulgated on February 19, 2021.
Simón Hernández explains that a direct protection promoted by García Rodríguez is also in Court, since he was sentenced to 37 years in prison with the same evidence with which Reyes Alpízar was released and his not guilty was determined.
Two additional related cases are the requests for Ministers Estela Ríos and Yasmín Esquivel not to know the cases. “We say that (Estela Ríos) should not be a speaker because as legal advisor to the Presidency she asked the Court, where she is now, to maintain the informal preventive detention and that is clearly a loss of objectivity,” Hernández details.
Regarding Minister Esquivel, the lawyer explains, “because she made public statements a few years ago at the International Book Fair about Daniel García and Reyes Alpízar, referring to them as responsible for a femicide, that they were poor little angels and that fortunately they had been in prison for years.”
A security strategy without impact
Susana Camacho, from México Evalúa, explains that the reality of increasing violence and insecurity that the country is experiencing is evidence that this increase in crimes that deserve informal preventive detention has not served as a security strategy.
“The fact that right now it remains unresolved, in some way tells us that they know it is wrong. In other words, there is an awareness that they know that it is a measure that is not only contrary to human rights, as the IACHR has insisted in the cases it has heard about in Mexico, but also that it has no effect,” for security.
The researcher explains, for example, that since 2008 homicide has been in this catalog of informal preventive detention, when the incidence of homicide was 13,000 cases. “Right now we are more or less around 30,000 cases,” he says.
When informal preventive detention has been applied, it has not served to reduce or maintain the number of homicides in the country. We are talking about the fact that there is actually no deterrent effect of informal preventive detention.
Susana Camacho, from Mexico Evalúa.
Another example, he explains, is the justice system of Querétaro, where “practically they no longer apply informal preventive detention” and when it is reviewed how effective the criminal justice system of that entity is, it is found that it is one of the most effective in the country, since it also has one of the highest security rates. “That tells us that there really is no relationship,” he says.
The figure has been maintained in the legislation and the number of crimes that merit this figure has increased. In 2008, when Calderón was President, a list of crimes with “high social impact” was incorporated that included organized crime, intentional homicide, rape, kidnapping, crimes committed with weapons and explosives. In 2011, human trafficking was added.
López Obrador added nine, including electoral crimes, corruption and abuse in the exercise of functions. And so far in Sheinbaum’s six-year term, six other crimes have been added, including extortion or those related to fentanyl and arms trafficking.
“The Executive continues to insist on this measure, Congress is endorsing it and the Supreme Court does not rule definitively in accordance with what the Inter-American Court has insisted, which speaks of a lack of definition, while more crimes susceptible to informal preventive detention increase and crime does not reduce,” says Camacho.
Although during her mandate, Sheinbaum has been cautious, the rejection of this figure came from the López Obrador government, because it would imply “releasing thousands.”
In March 2024, the then Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, explained that eliminating this type of automatic prison would imply releasing more than 68,000 people who at that time she estimated were in prison under this figure.
According to the Security Cabinet, it would put complainants, witnesses, police officers, judges at risk, and would place a burden on the justice system, although nothing was said about the human rights of people imprisoned without evidence, trial, or sentence.
