Federico Reyes Heroles
Hugs to Loret and Victor in a time of scoundrels.
Claudia Sheinbaum is in an uncomfortable interregnum. She is the winning candidate with enormous support but has not been given her majority certificate. The Electoral Tribunal must first receive the challenges and resolve them. By September 6 at the latest, it must pronounce its decision. But the Superior Chamber is incomplete for that act. The Organic Law of the Federal Judicial Power (PJF) establishes that six magistrates are needed. There should be seven, but inexplicably, there are only five. The Senate did not comply with its obligation. Why? It is strange, suspicious. In an extraordinary session, it could make the appointments. But nothing indicates that they will do so. The protocol – Organic Law of the PJF – for the selection among electoral magistrates of the missing ones is ambiguous, but there is a protocol. It is an extraordinary situation.
In Sheinbaum’s long interregnum -three months- AMLO is taking advantage of her to guarantee what he considers the culmination of his stage: reforming the Judiciary by promoting the election of judges, a madness. The international press has not ceased to point out the size of the national commotion this would entail. The markets have fluttered. But nothing, it goes because it goes. In the best logic of power, Sheinbaum should distance herself to establish her own course. But AMLO, unstoppable, exhibits his control: a reckless and ostentatious kiss, imposed tours, and severe restrictions on the selection of her staff. Paraphrasing Machiavelli, Sheinbaum is the “corseted” princess.
Some of her first appointments gave a respite, but only that. The time bomb is still ticking. If they approve the election of judges, the schism will cancel the next administration’s good performance. In a global world, the main anchor of certainty to invest is the rendering of justice. It was thought that leaving the Superior Chamber incomplete and keeping the qualification in check was a perverse action in case the opposition won.
José Elías Moreno Apis published a revealing article on May 3 in Excelsior: what would happen if the qualification does not take place? The Constitution is very clear. The first step, the President of the Senate -everything indicates that it will be Adán Augusto López, a stalwart of AMLO- would be provisional President. Afterward, the Congress of the Union -where another unconditional will be the boss, Ricardo Monreal- would call for new elections in a term no longer than 60 days. He would govern for seven to nine months and could be anyone who has not been President. The election is organized and another president. It is clear which is the hegemonic group behind the man in charge. Pepe’s conclusion: “There is the possibility that the new President will not be the one chosen by the majority of citizens, but (someone) chosen by the congressional majority. That is to say, the owner of the new Congress of the Union may decide…”. Any doubts?
It sounds paranoid, but something very pathological has been going on for six years. Why not appoint the missing magistrates? Why exhibit the new President’s dependence and forced closeness? Why keep her in limbo, in which any slight discrepancy would be enough to signal disloyalty with the self-elected leader? Straitjacketed, with a tenure full of follies for which the elected Judiciary would be irreparable, AMLO could be leading everything to a continuation of his control in a bad way.
The word loyalty has an excellent reputation. But there are from loyalties to loyalties. This administration made that requirement public: loyalty to the self-appointed leader. But there is a problem: the Constitution establishes a different loyalty: “I pledge to keep and uphold the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the laws that emanate from there, and to perform loyally and patriotically the office of President of the Republic that the people have conferred upon me…” (Art. 87). What happens when personal loyalty prevents looking “at all times for the good and prosperity of the Union…”?
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