Headed by Lenia Batresa minority of four ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) closed the lid of the coffin of the Victim Care Funddespite the fact that the majority of the togados agreed to declare its elimination unconstitutional, promoted in the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
This is an unprecedented case, since the extinct First Room had already declared the disappearance of the fund unconstitutional, but the declaration of the Plenary of the SCJNwhich would only be a procedure; But with the minority voting against, what happened is that the discussion of something already judged was reopened and the criteria was changed in a single session.
Disappearance of the Fund for Attention to Victims
The Fund for Attention to Victims, disappeared in 2020had the purpose of guaranteeing immediate resources for those affected by crimes or human rights violations, including support for medical care, accommodation and, in urgent cases, partial reparations for the damage.
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This case is added to the one that Minister Batres is expected to present on Thursday, in which
proposes that compensation for deaths be set at the Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA) and not in minimum wages, which would reduce the amounts to repair the damage to less than half.
The discussion on the Victims Fund took place on November 18 and it required a qualified majority, that is, a minimum of six votes, which was not achieved, so the article that eliminated that trust remained firm.
Five ministers voted for the declaration of unconstitutionality of the elimination of the fund, which would reactivate it, but although they were in the majority, a minority block was imposed, headed by Lenia Batres, who was the one who presented the most arguments, among which were that the trust had budget limits.
Lenia Batres, Sara Herrerías, María Estela Ríos e Irving Espinosa voted against the bill Giovanny Figueroawhile in favor of the restoration of the fund they joined Yasmín Esquivel, Loretta Ortiz, Aristides Guerrero and the president of the Court himself, Hugo Aguilar.
Dozens of organizations have warned that the SCJN turned its back on the victims, and warned about the risks of reopening discussions of things judged in the other era of the Court.
Analysis
The divided vote of the Supreme Court It is part of the correlation of forces that are beginning to form among the new ministers, he considered Gustavo Lopez Montielacademic of the School of Sciences and Government of the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
“There is a group of ministers a little more attached to a hard position, more attached to the position of Minister Lenia Batres or María Estela Ríos; however, the other ministers play a role in contrast to that position of strength that is a little more homogeneous,” he said.
Lenia Batres intends to ‘lower the price of life’, they accuse
Retired judges, experts and civil organizations accused Lenia Batres of
simulation by promoting projects that go against the protection of victims and “lowering the price of life.”
24 HOURS published that Minister Batres presented a project identical to that of the past October 2which he withdrew to study it in depth and in response to the concerns of his peers. It is about establishing as jurisprudence the payment of compensation for death in Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA) and not in minimum wages.
The Association for the Protection of Accident Victims (Aproviac) noted that the minister seeks “impose a criterion that would reduce the compensation received by accident victims and their families by more than 50%. If approved, it would mean the greatest setback in the human rights of the victims in the recent history of Mexico.”
In this regard, Israel Trinidad Murielretired District Judge, said in his account of X:
“I have been warning you, Lenia Batres pretended to withdraw the project in the last session to rethink it, supposedly from a new perspective, apparently responding to criticism of protecting an economic sector: she did not do it.”
‘Isn’t she very protective of the rights of the people?’
He criticized that “isn’t it very protective of the rights of the people? This is not, because it attacks precisely the rights of the most vulnerable, that is, of the entire sector that it claims to protect and remains nothing more than rhetorical discourse.”
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For its part, José Mario de la Garzalawyer and president of the organization You belongconsidered that “Batres wants Mexico to value life in UMAS, not in minimum wages. His project would reduce compensation for death or disability by almost 60%.”
He stated that “with the stroke of a pen, a mother who loses her child, a family that is left without a livelihood, a victim of medical negligence, would receive just a fraction of what the law establishes today. It is not a technical adjustment: it is lowering the price of life. It is transforming pain into an administrative procedure.”
He added that “the most serious thing is that this coup comes wrapped in the discourse of being on the side of the people, but each decision points in another direction: protecting the State, lowering the cost of public responsibility, shielding those who should be held accountable.”