Controversy in Mexico over the appointment of the president of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Mexico had planned this Monday elect its own president in the midst of a controversy: one of the candidates, the judge yasmin esquivelwho they accuse of being close to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is accused alleged plagiarism of his thesis.

López Obrador said the election of the new president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) is independent” and will recognize whoever is elected, though he once again defended Esquivel.

“We have to wait for what the ministers will decide freely and also institutionally why in no way will we declare war on the judiciaryInstitutionally, whoever stays will be recognized because we are autonomous, we are independent and there must be collaboration, because the people of Mexico are above everything,” the president said.

Yasmín Esquivel confirmed this on Friday he doesn’t give up of his attempt to preside over the Supreme Court after allegations of plagiarism.

“I will continue in the struggle to consolidate a true rule of law, and next January 2 I will try with my proposal, that for the first time in the history of our country the SCJN be led by a woman”, he pointed out on his official Twitter account.

The alleged plagiarism

This, after it became known that the thesis of the Minister of the Mexican Supreme Court, outgoing from the Faculty of Higher Studies Aragon, it was similar to that of the graduate of the Faculty of Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), José Báez, in this same house of studies.

“I strictly and categorically deny the allegations made regarding an alleged plagiarism of my thesis that has been circulating on social networks and in some media,” said Esquivel.

And he therefore trusted UNAM, the academic institution that undertook the investigation in this case offered his cooperation “being the first interested in clarifying this situation in its entirety and in verifying the truth”.

He also argued that it is an “evil campaign” delegitimize it in view of the renewal the head of Mexico’s highest court and the country’s entire judiciary.

The court elects a new president after Arturo Zaldívar’s term ended on December 31, who faced accusations of being too close to the current government.

The Mexican president, who accused the Judiciary of “having been kidnapped” by the interests, refused to interfere in this election.

No, I have no interference of any kind, if I were what my opponents think, then the president would decide, but that’s not the case, we are not equal, Mexico cannot be governed without moral authority, he said.

He admitted that in the other six years the president of the country was the one who chose the head of the SCJN.

But we don’t have a majority, we don’t even aspire to that, to have control of another power, because we are democrats and we want there to be a true rule of law, he said.

He also criticized that of the four ministers he has proposed to the Court so far in his six-year term, two turned their backsIn his opinion.

However, he trusts that there are ministers who are not unconditional but who defend the transformation project and not the old regime.

López Obrador returned to defend Esquivel, who was also questioned for his closeness to the government.

“Poor lawyer Yasmín, a whole war of potentates, media, intellectual columnists of the regime sold and rented,” he said.

López Obrador had already defended Esquivel’s “justice” and felt that he should not give up this process of renewal.

EFE extension