The obscurity of the Mexican justice system has dragged on for years, for decades, with its unlimited ineptitude, corruption and neglect, without achievements or improvements and, consequently, almost without hope. For 25 years, from [President Carlos] Salinas [1988-94] to today, twelve attorneys general have passed through the PGR [Attorney General's office/Justice Department]. Most were of no quality, others without conviction or commitment, and others passed through hastily. The failure of their projects and their very short times in office were their worst enemies. One was in office for five months. This is a manifestation of the lack of interest of the presidents.
Today the attention of Enrique Peña Nieto to the matter, rather than promoting it, has fallen into total disinterest. It is the product of having uttered 200 speeches in six months. Note the report of the presidential speech on May 30, referring to the administration of justice, which was published on page 9 of a national newspaper as an obligatory reference. It didn't make any front pages. That day he said:
"It is essential to have a strong and effective rule of law where the law is enforced without exception, without preference and without delay. This demands a thorough restructuring in all prosecutors' offices. We ought to encourage specialization, investigators who have up-to-date scientific and technical capabilities, public servants who are more committed to social responsibility."His speeches already have no effect. It is very lamentable to recognize their insignificance. Rhetorically they may be impeccable, but they simply transmit nothing; they don't relate to reality. In truth, there is little to restructure in a prosecutor's office, adhering to the strict meaning of the word. Its functions are highly defined by law: to compile and record evidence, represent society in court and address related problems, such as amparos [order of protection, injunctions], human rights, attention to groups, and so on. They can combine or separate these responsibilities as they wish.
This predetermination of functions inevitably leads to similar structures, call them whatever you like. They have gone from calling them the Public Ministry or prosecutors to ministerial police or judicial police, or the euphemisms of scientific or investigative police. We indulge ourselves with calling them prosecutors or deputy prosecutors and other useless games that are simple tricks of language. They are just tricks we've seen every day. The truth remains the same, call their various components what you will. The key is that the ineptitude, corruption and negligence of an overwhelming majority of the people is central to all the dysfunction.
The bottom of things, and here the senior prosecutors bump into the real core of the problem, are the human resources. If they were upright and efficient, they would work within any structure. They are not. The investigative police, experts and police, who are key characters in the new adversarial criminal justice system [transition to public, oral trials]--including the administrative staff, who sell copies of records or remove evidence and records--simply don't function. Nor will they function because of a simple restructuring, be what it may, and regardless of whatever linguistic license is used by those who want to give new names to the same people and bureaucratic practices.
The problem becomes repetitive: presidential recommendations that "public servants have social responsibility" are destined to oblivion. Where would the new investigative police or prosecutors, experts, judicial police or ministerial police come from to staff the prosecutors offices, or whatever you want to call them, if sufficient educational institutions for their training don't exist?
And the police that are wanted are the most serious problem. The state training institutes are technically weak; they have no structure and receive no political attention. They are simply a subterfuge; many are clearly a simulation. One can see here that there is no response to the presidential call.
Any thoughts or discussion becomes a boring refrain. There is no need for deep, brainy, hard hitting "re-engineering", as it is customary to call it. None of that will be effective unless how to resolve the issue of ineptitude, corruption and neglect is understood. This is of such a magnitude that the problem would do well to be addressed collectively by society, accompanying the senior prosecutors in this concern. How do we change institutions without changing their people? Spanish original
**Jorge Carrillo Olea is a retired general and Mexican politician. A member of the Party of the Institutional Revolution, he was governor of Morelos from 1994-98. He holds a bachelors degree in military administration from the Superior War College. Presently, he is considered a specialist in national security and intelligence services.