Government Not Monitoring Implementation of New Criminal Justice System in Mexico Arturo Angel - Animal Politico
go to original September 5, 2016

(From L to R) Secretary of the interior Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Supreme Court President Luis María Aguilar, and Head of the Attorney General’s Office Arely Gómez González. (Excélsior)

Lawyers belonging to the National Network for Oral Trials complain that the new criminal justice system in Mexico, officially launched on June 18, is functioning without anyone in the federal government responsible for monitoring its correct application and results. The lawyers, who assisted in the implementation of the new model of justice, said that the autonomous body that was responsible for doing so, the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the Adversarial Criminal Justice System (SETEC) is being closed [as its mandate ended on June 18], so it no longer has the power to intervene, and the federal government has not yet announced plans to create a new agency.

This is happening even though the new criminal justice system is not yet consolidated. Although the constitutional mandate was that it come into operation throughout the country on June 18, the federal government recognized that it would not achieve optimum performance until 2024, because there are lags in the construction of court rooms for oral trials, police training and the implementation of tjhe laws for prosecuting adolescents, among others.

The president of the network, Martin Carlos Sanchez Bocanegra, said that with the disappearance of SETEC, which was the autonomous body responsible for overseeing the system, the economic resources for full implementation are also at risk. The SETEC had an annual budget (this last year it was 80 million pesos [US$4.25 million]) to oversee the implementation and operation of the system, but it also administered over a one billion, 200 million pesos [US$64 million] in subsidies to the [thirty-two] states to invest in infrastructure, training and changes in state laws, among others.

"This is an urgent matter. The budget for 2017 is about to be passed and if there is no new autonomous body, then there will be no specific funding for this. And the subsidies? We are talking about there being no money to support the justice system in the states," he said.

The office of communications of SETEC, a body within the Secretariat of Government Relations, when asked by Animal Politico, said there is an agreement between the three branches of government [Executive, Congress and Judiciary] signed on July 20, to monitor the consolidation of the system.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexico Justice System Incapable of Addressing Findings of Extrajudicial Executions in Tanhuato (Mexico Voices)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!