Reforma, Mexico City, January 4, 2023
By Claudia Guerrero and Antonio Baranda
In his morning press conference today, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [aka AMLO] criticized the votes of the Ministers [justices of the Supreme Court] that led to Norma Piña beingf elected to the presidency of the Court.
The President went over the votes for the two final candidates: Norma Piña, who obtained 6 votes, and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, who obtained 5.
López Obrador said that the outgoing president of the Court, Arturo Zaldívar, Loretta Ortiz and Margarita Ríos-Farjat, all of whom sympathize with him, voted for Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena.
"In the end, there were two candidates, attorney Piña and attorney Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena. There were two who sympathize with us, the president of the Court, Arturo Zaldívar, and Loretta (Ortiz), who voted for Ortiz Mena.
"We already had the vote of the president, the vote of Minister Loretta (Ortiz), the vote of Minister Margarita (Ríos-Farjat), who we also nominated [to the Court] and...the vote of the former president of the Court, (Luis María) Aguilar, plus the candidate's vote, so there were five."
"And for Ms. Piña, there were four lawyers: (Javier) Láynez, (Jorge) Pardo, (Alberto Pérez) Dayán and (Juan Luis) González Alcántara. And Yazmín (Esquivel) made 5 and the vote of Mrs. Piña made 6. So, that's how it was, 6 to 5. Why don't they say this in the media? [The votes were published yesterday.] Doesn't it seem strange to you?"
MV Note: Yasmin Esquivel, nominated to the Court by AMLO, was thought to be his choice for the presidency. However, her legitimacy as a minister recently fell under a shadow for allegedly plagiarizing her thesis for her law degree. It is curious that she became the swing vote for Minister Piña and that AMLO said nothing about her defection from his "sympathizers" on the Court.
Today, on its front page, Reforma published the votes of the magistrates, precisely at the time AMLO was speaking of them.
The President once again criticized the highest court for its decisions, which, he said, do not help el pueblo [meaning the majority of Mexicans who are ordinary, lower-middle-class, working class and poor people]. He reproached the Court,
"...Tell me if you know of a Court decision that has helped el pueblo. There are none."
MVNote: AMLO constantly criticizes the Court for rejecting various of his executive orders as unconstitutional. He also criticizes the upper-middle class, the wealthy, and any person or organization that critizes him as being "fifis", i.e., self-centered, concerned only with their own interests, and opposed to the needs of "el pueblo". For AMLO, Mexico is sharply divided between "us vs. them".