Politics: Turning back the clock on reform
The extensive package of presumed constitutional and legislative reform proposals that began circulating in social media last Tuesday, if it is in fact from the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico (FGR) as presumed, threatens to bring about a major reversal of more than a decade of progress in trying to reform the criminal justice system in Mexico.
Some of the proposals are particularly alarming, such as extending the time a person can be held without formal charges for up to 80 days; allowing judges to coordinate with public prosecutors in assembling criminal case files while also eliminating due process judges, a position created to prevent due process violations and abuses of the rights of the accused; permitting admission of evidence illegally obtained; allowing prisoner transfers to be decided on a merely administrative basis without the need for any judicial authorization, and giving the Senate the power to set up special courts for prosecuting cases against members of the judiciary.
A January 22 announcement by the FGR states that the package of bills and reform proposals circulating on social media had not been “signed, nor put forward” by the attorney general or his department. But the bulletin’s authors clearly took care not to deny that the documents were produced within the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico, which means that at the very least they constitute a draft of what is to be brought before Congress February 1.
Passage of such a reform package would have radical consequences for the criminal justice system in Mexico, largely turning back the clock to a time before the major overhaul of the criminal justice system over a decade ago, even though essential aspects of the new system were never put into place. The proposals would clearly tip the scales back in favor of the Public Prosecutor, curtail judiciary autonomy, and bury the relatively new accusatory criminal justice system that was designed to help root out widespread corruption within the court system. We may have to wait until Congress reconvenes to see if officials will fully embrace these proposals.
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