José Ramón Cossío Díaz, formers associate justice  of Mexico’s Supreme Court. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

Former associate Justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) José Ramón Cossío made known his concerns about the extent of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) knowledge of the law on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 16, following López Obrador’s public reading of a letter addressed to President of the SCJN and of the Federal Judicial Council (CJF) Arturo Zaldívar Lelo de Larre one day earlier, requesting an investigation into the judge who suspended AMLO’s controversial electric reform.

AMLO’s letter accused Zaldívar of “allowing abuse and arrogance under the excuse of the rule of law” and claimed Cossío belonged “conservative and reactionary group.”

While the CJF entered a complaint the same day against District Judge Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro, as requested by AMLO, Zaldívar clarified, “if there are elements,” the investigation would be carried out “with full respect for the autonomy and independence of the jurisdictional function.”

For his part, Cossío made a public statement on his Twitter account saying, “I am concerned about (AMLO’s) decontextualized and partial statements about me, but even more about his lack of understanding of the rule of law. The judges are the final guarantors of the constitution.”

“I do thank the President of the court very much because our complaint was admitted and now it will be resolved according to what is appropriate,” said AMLO following the filing of the complaint against Gómez Fierro on March 16.

“We are very respectful of the autonomy, of the independence of the judges,” responded López Obrador to Zaldívar’s stipulations. “But they cannot be untouchable. The thing about the legal system being untouchable, that it cannot be touched, is over.”

…March 17, 2021