Chamber of Deputies

Mexico City. In eight minutes, the Morena benches and their allies in the Chamber of Deputies gave effect to the session in which the constitutionality of the reform to the Judicial Branch was declared. With this, the legislative process was closed and the amendment was sent to the Executive Branch for publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

Opposition legislators did not attend the session in San Lázaro in an attempt to make room for the implementation of this reform. In their seats, PAN members left banners with the legend “I am resistance to destroying the Judicial Branch,” while MC legislators placed banners with the phrase “Mourning for justice.”

While the deputies of the so-called transformation movement (Morena, PT and PVEM) celebrated with shouts and slogans.

“Yes, we could, yes, we could,” “Judicial reform, popular mandate,” was heard among the seats; at the same time, others raised signs with the same message: “The people command.” Others chanted the well-known refrain: “It is an honor to be with Obrador.”

Before reading the declaration of constitutionality, it was reported that the Chamber of Deputies had received the declaration that hours before was approved in the Senate of the Republic; in addition to the approving votes of 23 local congresses:

Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Colima, Durango, Guerrero, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas and Mexico City.

After completing this reading, the vice president of the board of directors of San Lázaro, Sergio Gutiérrez Luna (Morena) made the declaration:

“The Congress of the Union, in exercise of the power conferred upon it by Article 135 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, and after approval by the majority of the states and Mexico City, declares various provisions of the Constitution regarding the reform of the judicial branch amended, added to, and repealed.”

The reaction was not long in coming, the Morenitas and their allies shouted a general “bravo!”

The coordinator of the Morena deputies, Ricardo Monreal, with a huge smile, approached where representatives of the media were waiting for him, before whom he made it clear that there is no action of unconstitutionality, controversy or protection that can reverse a constitutional reform.

The session began at six in the afternoon with 36 minutes and concluded at six in the afternoon with 44 minutes, eight minutes were enough for the Morena deputies and their allies to sign the process.

“There is no recourse that can hinder or challenge these reforms that have just been sent to the Executive for publication,” he stressed.

Mexico City. The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies publicized this Sunday the ruling on the reform of the Judicial Branch of the Federation, and summoned the deputies of the 66th Legislature for next Tuesday, September 3 at 10 a.m. in the plenary session of San Lázaro, to begin the formal process of analysis of the initiative.

Following the General Congress Session, in which the sixth and final report of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was delivered, the President of the Board of Directors, Ifigenia Martínez, called for a first ordinary session to comply with the process of publicizing the aforementioned opinion.

From the beginning of the meeting, the opposition parties expressed their dissatisfaction by arguing that the injunctions granted yesterday by two district judges, based in Morelos and Chiapas, to prevent the reform of the PJF from being discussed, prevented the Chamber from beginning the legislative procedures for it.

The coordinator of the PRI bench, Rubén Moreira, even announced that the tricolor deputies would withdraw from the Session Hall. “We believe that we cannot go to a session to debate the ruling because there are suspensions of two judges, and I warn you that we are going to withdraw,” said the Coahuilense amid cries of rejection from Morena, PT and PVEM.

In the same vein, PAN member Agustín Rodríguez Torres said that the PAN would not be able to endorse the agenda of the session “because we are not going to violate suspensions granted by federal courts.”

He also argued that many of the new deputies had not participated in the commissions where the reform to the PJF was decided, nor in the National Dialogues on the subject, so he proposed holding open parliament forums to debate the reform again, in addition to creating a “working group made up of all parliamentary groups.”

In contrast, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja (PT) stressed that the suspensions issued by two district judges to prevent the discussion of the reform of the PJF are unacceptable, since they are injunctions “promoted by their fellow judges. Trials are promoted between them and they themselves grant themselves suspensions. We propose to dismiss these pseudo suspensions, because they are legal nothing, and to continue with the process of constitutional reform.”

For his part, the coordinator of the Morena deputies, Ricardo Monreal Ávila, went to the podium to ask the deputies to reject the appeals of the aforementioned judges because said action “is inappropriate, because it violates the Constitution and because it flagrantly violates the principle of legality.”

As he explained in a video posted on social media on Saturday, the president of the Political Coordination Board pointed out that Article 61 of the Amparo Law “clearly states that in the case of additions and reforms to the Constitution, the amparo trial is inadmissible, along with all its derivations.”

Likewise, he pointed out, articles 39 and 135 of the Magna Carta indicate the right of the people to give themselves the system of government they decide, and the power of the Congress of the Union to modify the Constitution by qualified majority. Likewise, he read three jurisprudences on the impossibility of the Judicial Branch interfering in the decisions of the Legislative Branch. “Do you have any doubts?” he summarized sarcastically, as if he were in class.

“That is why we do not accept the tyranny of the cap and gown, of incompetent judges who now want to be presented as heroes, when they are nothing more than vulgar violators of the Constitution. (…) I am sure that, with this resolution issued for non-legal purposes, the district judges, magistrates and ministers who know the law must feel ashamed of such chicanery. In my town, they call them huizachero lawyers,” stressed Monreal, amid cries of “they want to cry, they want to cry!”, directed by the majority of the ruling party towards the opposition deputies.