It is only horror and shame: in Ayutla, Guerrero, a "pirate court", self-styled as the people's, with the law of "an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth", exhibits and imprisons a person before the disimulation of governments, politicians and commentators, while several of the same call the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to account and wave the finger of blame at it for having "liberated" Florence Cassez.
In Ayutla, they take justice into their own hands; in the Supreme Court, there is constitutional control over the decisions of the judges. In Ayutla, there is derision and vengeful frenzy; in the Supreme Court, a demand that the authorities comply with "due process." In Ayutla, hooded men wield weapons and force their victims to parade in front of their native Sanhedrin; in the Supreme Court, scrupulous respect by the police for human rights is examined. The law of talion over against the rule of law. Revenge against impartiality. Barbarism against civilization.
The "Cassez case" made clear the damage of the "corrupting effect", as Justice Arturo Zaldivar categorically called it, of seeking the prosecution of justice and citizens' applause at the same time, or looking for reasons outside the law to deliver justice.
Cassez was released from prison because the authorities broke the rhythms and ways imposed by the Constitution to deprive a person of freedom, because the police used tainted evidence to give primacy to a spectacle to the detriment of the fulfillment of the legal process, to dealing with the press before ensuring consular protection of a foreigner.
They swallowed anxiety in order to claim a media victory against crime, but the proofs were weak in court. It was a mistake in the previous [Calderon] administration, which is paying for it dearly. The "michoacanazo" [the arrests in 2009 of 30 Michoacan mayors on charges of criminal links, all later released for lack of evidence], the false news of the arrest of the son of El Chapo, the commercial television series to make the Federal Police look good, the advertising campaigns listing the number of narcos shot down, and the cinemographic helicopter overflights eventually "corrupted" not only the judicial record of Cassez, but every sense of the good, useful and necessary struggle against crime undertaken by former President Calderón as no one else has in recent history.
It wasn't the same with the resounding success of the Calderon administration to extinguish the expensive Central Light and Power Company. In stealth, without "giving notice" ahead of time, with shill, based on the law and its procedures, the federal government put an end to the insulting electricians union, whose history was sealed forever by the Supreme Court.
That "corrupting effect" of shaping all acts of government for the media can also spread to other branches or levels of government. The Supreme Court is not without falling into the temptation of settling conflicts and satisfying the public.
The unanimous decision of the Second Chamber of justices, headed by Sergio Valls, to reject the application of the SME union members to continue to enjoy lucrative and unfair salaries now also shields the Federal Electricity Commission from "media corruption". It did not leak to the press the contents of the decision, and it took care to follow the internal forms and courtesies of a strictly legal deliberation. It did not hastened the decision nor attend to the screams and blackmail of the protestors. The lead role was taken by the verdict.
No one can claim the right to depart from the Law. Neither the poor, nor the indigenous of Ayutla for being poor; neither the federal government in order to fight crime nor the victims of criminals; not even some angry workers, let alone judges.
Piero Calamandrei, a classic Italian jurist of the last century, gave a beautiful lecture, "Faith in the Law", where he said: "Some believe that the Law means selfishness; actually when when it is formulated in laws that eveyone has to fulfill, it means altruism." He defended legal "technique" and "procedures" as conditions for legal order and social coexistence. The State and civility cannot exist where laws are not respected by the citizens, and defended by the judges, he concluded.
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*Germán Martínez Cázares (born June 20, 1967) is a Mexican politician and lawyer. He is a member and was president of the National Action Party from 2007 to 2009, during the Calderon administration. He was a federal congressional deputy two times.
He holds a degree in law from the LaSalle University and studied constitutional law and political science at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies (Madrid). He pursued doctoral studies in constitutional law at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. He is currently the director of the School of Law of LaSalle University in Mexico City.
He holds a degree in law from the LaSalle University and studied constitutional law and political science at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies (Madrid). He pursued doctoral studies in constitutional law at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. He is currently the director of the School of Law of LaSalle University in Mexico City.