Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
The rise of Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández as the first President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) evoked sighs of relief and frustration. President López Obrador was sure he could impose Minister Jazmín Esquivel in that position as life insurance for the remainder of this six-year term and beyond when lawsuits for abuse of power, corruption, conspiracy to commit crimes, and criminal association are piling up against him. Her candidacy was derailed by the discovery of the plagiarism of her undergraduate thesis in complicity with her thesis director. That revelation also unveiled a network of corruption within the National Autonomous University of Mexico itself. But that is another situation.
The National Palace was left without a viable candidate to cover the President’s back. Each one will have to face the political and legal judgments and evaluations of their decisions and actions: the President out of power and the Minister as a pariah in the corridors of the SCJN.
Their desperation to reach the Presidency was such that they committed the mortal sin of every politician: lie, lie, and lie, even forcing others to lie for you, to try to get out of the way. But each time they lied, it became more and more evident that they were lying. And then they lied more to cover up their earlier lies.
That tangle unraveled with the vote held on January 2 that produced a voice that surprised all and sundry. Neither the President’s favorite nor the “richest minister of all” won the election. Piña, a Minister who ran for the position, but few had seriously considered the possibility of her taking the post, won. The two “lighthouses” of the process, the President of the Republic and the outgoing President of the SCJN, supported other candidates.
I cannot affirm that the Minister President does not have interests or commitments, who does not have them in this life. Still, it certainly breaks a close circle that wanted to protect the two outgoing Presidents, Zaldívar and López Obrador.
Upon learning that she would assume the Presidency of the SCJN, Minister Piña highlighted that it is the first time that a woman is at the helm of the SCJN, which breaks the difficulties women have had to access the highest position in the Judicial Branch.
A sigh of relief was heard when the result of the vote was announced inside the Court. It was a relief to feel that one of the three branches of government was capable of making decisions that were in the best interest of Mexican society and not simply for the group in power.
This is a six-year term in which the Legislative Branch constantly violates the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States without shame, even consciously enjoying it. Disrespect for the rule of law has become customary by senators and deputies alike. Even the highest representative of Morena in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, regretted his party’s vote on Plan B, declaring it a violation of the Magna Carta that governs us in several of its paragraphs. Knowing it violates the Constitution, they still vote with their majority in Congress to approve electoral laws that favor their party. This spirit of consciously ignoring the Constitution to impose “their law” has an unmistakable odor of coup d’état.
Thus, the election of a proven constitutional jurist as President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, who also comes from a career within the Judiciary, is a just cause for us to rejoice with her appointment. In times of severe pressure from the Executive and Legislative Branches towards the Judicial Branch, the Minister will face the most critical challenges of her life. She quickly appointed Minister Pardo as President of the First Chamber, in charge of all civil and criminal matters. And in the Second Chamber, she appointed Justice Pérez Dayán, who will be in charge of administrative and labor issues.
Although it is difficult to act and reason as if we were in normal times, because this is not the case, it is necessary to assume that the SCJN will act with constitutional balance in the cases it reviews and resolves. It would be wrong to assume, let alone demand, that she will be a Minister in opposition to the government of López Obrador. This is not the case, nor should it be. She is a Minister who will be guided by the constitutional precepts of each case and situation. This restraint and fairness are what the Republic demands today.
Under these precepts, the review of the many contested cases approved by the Morenista majority, knowing they violated the Constitution, should be reviewed as soon as possible to give the country the balance and serenity it deserves.
We could be facing the most important lesson for the Mexican society accustomed to twisting the law, little or much. The lesson would be that the rule of law and the Constitution are the last and most important barrier that keeps us healthy and democratic. To presume that we can jump that barrier and get away with living without rules is like assuming that society will swallow the lies of Minister Esquivel.
We must congratulate the SCJN for returning Mexico to the road to sanity and social peace. Nothing more, nothing less.
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