PULSE NEWS MEXICO

Apparently unaware the fact that Mexican law still provides for a separation of powers and that the judicial system does not take orders from the executive branch, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Friday, Sept. 2, chided the nation’s Supreme Court (SCJN) justices for not approving and rubberstamping the decisions and reforms made by his government.

Without mentioning any judges by name, López Obrador said that he had “made a mistake” in nominating some of them to their posts.

After taking office, AMLO named four of the court’s current 11 members, each of whom is appointed to serve 15 years. Those justices are Margarita Ríos-Farjat, Yasmín Esquivel, Loretta Ortiz and Juan Luis González Alcántara.

“I was wrong, because I made the nominees, but once they were nominated they no longer participated in my transformation project and became disobedient. They stopped caring about doing justice,” AMLO said during his daily morning press conference at the National Palace.

“Instead, they are now basing their decisions on legal precedence.”

López Obrador went on to complain that not all of the courts justices had been appointed by him.

“It’s just too hard for us to just have four of the 11 justices,” he said, noting that in April, he “barely had enough votes” for his controversial Electricity Industry Law (LIE) to be declared constitutional.

The president specifically complained about an upcoming decision by the court that would eliminate mandatory pre-trial detention (jail without bail) in all cases except those involving crimes of violence.

“It is a complete act of incongruency,” he said.

“These paladins of justice suddenly want to annul an article of the Mexican Constitution, something that does not correspond to them, and that is very serious.”

López Obrador also said that, after winning the presidential election in 2018, he had intended to promote a reform to eradicate corruption within the judiciary.

However, after realizing that he could not appoint all the SCJN justices, he had decided to “leave the process in the hands of the judges.”