Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

Just one day after Mexico’s Eighth District Judge in Administrative Matters Martín Santos ordered a provisional judicial amparo to prevent Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) from speaking negatively about aspiring opposition presidential candidate Senator Xóchitl Gálvez in public on Monday, Aug. 7,  López Obrador announced that he will denounce Santos in front of the Federal Judicial Council (CJF) in retaliation for the judge’s actions against him.

Santos’ judicial ruling on Monday stipulated that AMLO must stop the “malice” and “hate speech” against Gálvez and remove any previously published posts about the presidential hopeful from any López Obrador administration-affiliated social networks and sites.

This new amparo against AMLO is significant as, unlike a decision from one of Mexico’s presiding electoral bodies, violating a judicial amparo could result in imprisonment – in this case, the imprisonment of the Mexican president himself.

While the Federal Executive’s Legal Department legally has 48 hours to appeal the amparo in front of a collegiate court, López Obrador decided to take things one step further during his daily morning press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 8, when AMLO announced he would pursuing action against Santos in front of the CJF.

“I am going to answer the judge, because the ‘effective malice’ is on his part, and I am going to formally send a letter to the CJF against the judge for all his records and for his sectarian, illegal and unfair actions, in addition to acting as a politician,” said López Obrador at the time. “I am going to report him for all of his judicial history and for what he is doing against me.”

“I am not used to doing this, the CJF is supposed to take action in these cases, and they do nothing,””continued the federal executive. “Look at how many judges are acting arbitrarily, and with obvious interest in favor of organized crime groups or white-collar crime. Also, they earn a lot of money to do nothing, like 300 to 400 thousand pesos a month. They scratch themselves and do nothing.”

Secretary of the Interior Luisa María Alcalde likewise spoke out against the judge, citing other judicial suspensions granted by Santos like his amparos on the ban of electronic cigarettes, the ban of using cartoon characters on children’s food products and on the implementation of the Secretariat of Public Education’s (SEP) controversial pilot school program.

“Santos is exceeding his powers and taking advantage of an amparo, decisions are made that violate freedom of expression, not only of the president of Mexico, but also the right to information of all Mexican men and women,” concluded Alcalde. “Of course, this affects democracy.”