Andrea Becerril
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 25, 2025, p. 8
The position that Judge Janine Otálora will leave, by her own decision, on the last day of this month in the upper chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) will remain vacant until 2027 when there will be elections for judges, since it is “an atypical case”, not provided for in the judicial reform.
The board of directors of the Senate only took note of the letter that the judge sent them last Tuesday, in which she stated that her appointment ends on the 31st and she will not stay for two years, as the Constitution allows, and sent it to the TEPJF.
This means that this Chamber puts an end to the issue, “it just takes note, since it is not up to it to do anything anymore,” commented the Morena senator, Enrique Inzunza, president of the Legislative Studies Commission and jurist.
He explained that Judge Otálora did not present her resignation, as in her opinion she should have done, and only notified her decision not to continue in office, although in the Constitution, after the judicial reform of September last year, it was specified that the four members of the TEPJF would remain in their positions until the next election of judges in 2027.
If Otálora had presented his resignation, the Senate would have had to analyze it and most likely would have accepted it, as happened when the now retired minister, Arturo Záldívar resigned, because, he explained, while it is true that article 98 of the Constitution establishes that definitive retirements of judges can only be for serious reasons, it is also true that no one can be forced to continue in a public responsibility in which they no longer is willing to continue.
“I want to understand that both the board of directors and the Political Coordination Board assumed that Judge Otálora’s communication was in accordance with the law and the Senate has nothing to do regarding that definition of the judge to conform to her original appointment.
“The Senate communicates it to the upper chamber of the TEPJF for what is appropriate and a determination is made in the field of substitution or administrative matters. Until then.”
–And what will happen to the vacancy that it leaves in that court?
–I understand that it will remain vacant until 2027 and the TEPJF will operate with six of its seven members.
A retired judge, Inzunza considered that this does not mean a problem for that court that in 2024, prior to the presidential election, operated with five judges.
–Is there a legal vacuum left by the judicial reform?
–It is an atypical case, because in the Constitution the possibility was given for the acting electoral magistrates to continue until the second election, one of them does not want to and it is an issue that we must analyze and see if a new modification to the Magna Carta is required.
It is also necessary, he pointed out, to establish in the Constitution that local electoral magistrates and those of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (TFJA) must be elected at the polls, like the rest of the members of the Judiciary, he stressed.
