However, the leader of the Morena senators, Ricardo Monreal, admitted that although no reform to the prosecutor’s offices is foreseen, he is working together with prosecutor Alejandro Gertz on a proposal prepared by the latter.
“We are preparing a project on the administration of justice that is not contemplated in the initiative sent by the president and includes issues such as preventive detention, forfeiture of assets, federal law on forfeiture of assets, disappearance of persons; forced recruitment by organized crime; immigration law, health law to recognize the prohibition of fentanyl; the law on organized crime, among other norms to be reformed,” he said.
Judicial reform forgets
Although it was not the central topic in this forum, there were recurring references to the controversial proposal for judicial reform that proposes electing, at the polls and through citizen voting, ministers, judges and magistrates, an issue in which even the member of the Federal Judicial Council (CJF), Celia Maya – who was a Morena deputy – asked that the replacement be staggered and not apply to all positions.
And to his colleagues in the judiciary he said, “Let us not deify ourselves” in order to stay, but rather accept the transformation.
At the forum, the proposal to elect members of the Judicial Branch was refuted in particular by Judge Marlén Angeles Tovar, who participated on behalf of the workers of the Federal Judicial Branch of Sinaloa, who placed at the center the debate on why the election has no relation to the application of justice.
“If I am a candidate, what will I propose in my campaign? Deny protection to criminals? But what do you think? As a career judge, I cannot prejudge.”
He then recalled that he cannot decide anything without seeing the evidence, that the presumption of innocence and due process must prevail, progress that did not exist when left-wing leaders suffered fabricated crimes and torture, so there is no turning back.
“The left in Mexico has fought for rights and freedoms, they are the main ones who were persecuted, who disappeared in the dirty war. They were tortured, confessions were extracted from them…precisely this regression we cannot allow in order to provide results to the citizens.”
The judge indicated that although citizens deserve security, “I believe that the people of Mexico do not deserve to regress in their rights. Confessions cannot be obtained under torture, people cannot be made to disappear… or are the Mexican people willing to lose those rights so that they can be reversed and there is now a presumption of guilt? Or is it a presumption of innocence? We need evidence,” the Sinaloa native stressed.
In his message, he guaranteed that the only thing he can offer is that if an authority, even the highest in the country, violates rights and commits arbitrary acts, he will be stopped by the Judiciary.
“Even if they arbitrarily dismiss us, we will continue in office until the last day (…) until the day when there are career judges, we will stop the power, we will say, no, no. You cannot make people disappear, you cannot illegally expropriate a peasant’s land, you cannot close down a merchant if he has a permit. The prosecutors should do their job.”
The judge demanded that the judicial portfolio not be destroyed because it would be a setback to the State’s 30 years of investment.
