Judicial reform will not guarantee independent and impartial justice | Article by Carlos Ivan Arenas

Carlos Ivan Arenas Angeles.

Division has always plunged our great nation into instability and great inequality; The struggle for power and money has always divided our society. Throughout Mexico’s political history, in the struggle for power we have experienced the struggle between liberals and conservatives, then the struggle between right and left, now bordering on a meaningless social class struggle. Thus, today the opposition parties are focusing their efforts on protecting the Supreme Court of the country.

For its part, the party in power, caught in the euphoria of victory, is happy with the terrible idea of ​​directly electing judges, district judges, court ministers and even at the local level, now judges of the judiciary. powers; They see it as a kind of political revenge.

However, the division of power groups does not take into account the main problem, they overlook the fact that one of the most important functions entrusted to the state is called: “Justice, and that this can only be guaranteed by independent and impartial judges” and from now on I can assure you , that the appointment of our judges and magistrates by popular election by this method of appointment will not alter the system of administration of justice one iota. Who are they trying to fool?

The reform is contrary to Article 8.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights because it does not guarantee independent and impartial justice.

No one can deny that the justice system in Mexico has serious problems that lead to a high degree of mistrust in society, and we can agree that the biggest problem with justice in some cases lies with local justice rather than the federal judiciary. system. International organizations, organized society and statistics show the level of impunity, the slowness of judicial proceedings, the number of people sentenced to preventive detention, as well as corruption in some areas of the judicial system, which is evidence that we need fundamental reform and a statement that we are trying to solve problem by holding elections to appoint the highest officials of the judiciary – this is a big fraud. I explain with 30 years of experience as a public official and in the administration of justice; that in the judiciary there are valuable people with experience, high knowledge of the law, high ethical and moral qualities, loving justice; However, they are also mistaken in believing that justice begins and ends in the judicial system. We are so used to carrying out reforms without a deep analysis of real problems.

The problem with Mexico’s justice system is how it should be understood as a system; It all starts with the police corporations and agencies that report to the executive branch. For example, let’s not forget that we once decided that the first step of criminal justice is to approve a police report, which must be written by police officers who in many cases are not trained or, worse, some colleagues do not know how to read or write , I mean at all levels, be it municipal, state or national guard.

And the question is: Do you believe that, given these supposed shortcomings, justice will be improved by the appointment of judges by popular election?

There is no worse blind man than one who does not want to see. I tell you that as judges there is little we can do if the initial investigation into what should be decided in some cases is flawed.

We have another problem with some of the prosecutor’s offices in the country. I can tell you from experience that maintaining a connection or a verdict was often very difficult; because many folders from the investigation and prosecution are extremely incomplete. Perhaps one of the reasons is that many prosecutors do not have sufficient budgetary resources, training, professionalism, autonomy to conduct investigations, and unless we work more on the latter, investigative work will continue to be insufficient in some cases.

To summarize, the problem that the government in power claims about Mexico’s justice system is not solved by popular elections of its judges; when in fact the purpose of this reform is to take control of the judiciary, knowing the principle of separation of powers. At the federal level, a larger budget and more federal judges and magistrates are needed. For example, at the local level, the justice system, if applicable, requires deep reform, which includes appointment procedures to be carried out through organized elections, competitive examinations and the institutionalization of the judicial career, rather than through popular elections. To sum up, Mexico needs deep training and professionalism among police officers, prosecutors, their operators and all judicial officials. Constant review of their actions, true transparency of their assets and strict sanctions for bad judicial officials.

The judicial reform that is being sought to be approved in the coming days carries with it a high dose of danger and deception, since thousands of federal judges and magistrates, hundreds of local magistrates will be appointed; through the federal executive and the majority group of the Congress of the Union, who will propose their candidates to the voters, this is more serious than we think. The above jeopardizes the autonomy and independence of the judges since the majority will be people close to the government in power and thereby the executive and legislative branches will take control of the judiciary.

Any reform requires broad and reasonable discussion, which takes time. First, the government, parties and society understand that the executive cannot take control of the judiciary; that without autonomous and independent judges, everyone’s freedom, our rights, our property and, of course, our human rights are at risk; therefore, without independent and impartial justice there will be no social peace.

Here: “Justice and Freedom”

Carlos Ivan Arenas Angeles.
Justice of the Peace TSJ Morelos is retired.