The abuse of informal pretrial detention is because the judiciary does not work and does not defend the poor, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He affirmed that the Judiciary should have a good public defender system and that there should be a well-functioning Council of the Judiciary.
In a press conference, he said that he does not agree with the position of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation on the disappearance of informal pretrial detention.
Asked if informal pretrial detention affects the poor the most, @lopezobrador_ said that “the Judiciary does not defend them. The Judiciary should have a good public defender system, and the Council of the Judiciary should work very well, which does not work.” pic.twitter.com/eubwTYw48T
— Animal Político (@Pajaropolitico) August 26, 2022
He assured that, if the judges can decide, it will be to give protection to heads of organized crime gangs and white-collar criminals.
Read the special: Pretrial detention, the weapon that imprisons the poor and innocent
He exemplified with the case of José Bernabé, ‘La Vaca’, generator of violence in Colima, where a judge granted him freedom in recent days.
How many judges, how many magistrates, how many ministers have gone to jail? Is it an incorruptible power? Is it the Castle of purity? I hold the president of the Court very much, I consider him a man of integrity, but I do not agree with him on this issue,” he said.
López Obrador warned that eliminating informal pretrial detention means loss of human lives, not only of those who are victims, but also of elements of the police and the Army.
They ask to maintain informal pretrial detention
The bills that have been made known on the elimination of informal pretrial detention are under the argument that it is a violation of people’s rights. On the other hand, the federal government considers that it is necessary to preserve it.
The Presidency of the Republic — through a document prepared by the Ministry of the Interior and the Legal Department of the Executive Branch — asked the ministers to maintain informal pretrial detention, on the grounds that eliminating it would be detrimental to public security.
The future of informal pretrial detention in Mexico will be defined as of Monday, September 5.
This Friday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) meets to discuss the case of two Mexicans who were imprisoned without trial for 17 years, which will probably result in a sentence that orders the Mexican State to eliminate this measure that allows the automatic imprisonment without judicial analysis of people accused of committing any of the crimes listed in Article 19 of the Constitution.
Pretrial detention in Mexico
According to research by Animal Político and Intersecta, 300 people are imprisoned every day in Mexico, which has already led to the fastest growth of the prison population in 15 years.
But this number does not indicate that impunity has been brought down or violence curbed.
In reality, those who are in jail are people accused of petty theft or drug dealing, who were sent to prison while the investigation is over and he is being tried.
Read: 17 years imprisoned without sentence: the case of two Mexicans reaches the Inter-American Court and can eliminate informal pretrial detention
The amendment to article 19 of the Constitution allowed automatic ‘preventive’ imprisonment for a score of crimes, more than double those previously allowed. Today the informal pretrial detention agrees to imprison with only one complaint for theft.
The result: 130,000 detainees in two years in 21 states, who are people are innocent before the law, but the authority arrested them and has used the figure of preventive detention to keep them in jail without trial and without any accusation against them having been proven.
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