New president of Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal resigns to defuse crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Magistrate Reyes Rodríguez Mondragón, who was appointed president of the Mexican Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Power last Wednesday (4) by the majority of the magistrates, resigned this Monday, August 9.

The magistrate said in a public letter he was resigning to “influence the body’s reconciliation and internal harmony”.

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“A collegiate jurisdictional body must always ensure that all its members participate in its decisions. But it is also a key rule of democracy that the processes legitimize the result, and that is required in the election of a new president of the TEPJF,” said Rodríguez Mondragón.

“I recognize that the decision to appoint me as president of this court – albeit, a majority one – was made in the absence of two magistrates that make up the plenary of this court, José Luis Vargas (president) and Mónica Soto,” he added.

Given this, he said that he would step aside for the court to walk forward. “I will decline to preside over this constitutional court so that, in a clear and transparent process, among all the members of this body, we can select the person who will preside over it.”

On Wednesday of last week, five of the seven magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal participated in a session to evaluate Vargas’ performance at the tribunal’s head.

Vargas denounced a “coup d’état” against him and suspended the session, but the five magistrates met separately and appointed Reyes Rodríguez Mondragón as the new president of the Electoral Tribunal.

ON THE WAY TO RESOLUTION

The president of Mexico’s Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldívar, said Monday that he expects that “soon” the crisis over the dismissal of the president of the Electoral Tribunal investigated for corruption, José Luis Vargas, which was pushed by a majority of magistrates, will be resolved.

“I am sure that shortly this institutional crisis will be overcome”, expressed in social networks Zaldívar, who this Monday met at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice with Vargas, who so far has refused to leave office.

In the same message, Zaldívar, a supporter of Vargas’ resignation, acknowledged his “willingness to find a way out of the situation that the Electoral Tribunal is going through.”

After the meeting, the deposed magistrate announced that he proposed to the rest of the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal an “urgent” meeting for this Monday to “define a legal and political solution to the crisis faced by the Tribunal.”

The crisis was unleashed on Wednesday last week when a majority of the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal proposed, in full session, to evaluate Vargas’ performance as head of the court.

Vargas is under investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) for expenses of 36.7 million pesos (more than US$1.8 million) from 2013 to date, despite having declared in that period an income of only 16.7 million pesos (US$835,000). In a press conference last Friday, Zaldívar asked Vargas to “step aside” to normalize the situation.

Vargas, whose term at the head of the Tribunal is due to end in 2024, has also been accused of being biased in favor of the ruling party in power and of erratic behavior at the head of the institution.

Given the crisis, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, critical of the independent electoral bodies, said that all the magistrates “should resign for dignity” since the internal crisis is “a regrettable matter, which is embarrassing”.