The generation of senators of the Republic who concludes their regular work today, Tuesday, made history for violating the law on 48 occasions. Constitutionby approving 35 laws challenged before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), leaving seven State institutions without appointments, failing to comply with their transparency obligations, refusing to issue three laws ordered by the Magna Carta and having benches of one non-existent political party or with less than five members.
Furthermore, the generation of senators that began working in September 2018 and that was dominated politically and administratively by Morena became the first with 35 grasshoppers, with resolutions from judges that require them to work and in having legislators so controversial that the same is true. They went to Egypt, kicked people in the courtyard, were recorded receiving wads of money, accused them of using public money to publish their books and even ordered the sacrifice of a chicken.
This Tuesday concludes the six years of ordinary work of the senators who emerged from the polls in 2018 and who for the first time placed as the first political force a political party different from the historical PRI and PAN, as well as the party that opened the opposition presence in the Senate in 1988: the PRD.
A majority that, although achieved at the polls, was increased with the agreements led by its coordinator, Ricardo Monreal, who initially managed to get the Green Party militants, who came hand in hand with the PRI, to break with that coalition and become allies of Morena; In addition, he reached an agreement with the national leadership of the New Alliance Party so that the senators who also arrived from the PRI would go to Morena.
The new majority composition of the Senate, which placed the three traditional dominant political forces for 30 years as legislative minorities, forced us to emulate what happened in 1997 in the Chamber of Deputies, when the PRI lost its absolute majority in that Chamber for the first time: that Minorities will come together to stop the Morenista majority.
Contain the steamroller.
Thus, towards the end of 2018, the then parliamentary coordinators of the PAN, Rafael Moreno Valle; from the PRI, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong; of Movimiento Ciudadano, Dante Delgado and of the PRD, Miguel Ángel Mancera, all former governors, announced the formation of the so-called Containment Block, with the purpose of stopping decisions that would imply a qualified majority in the Senate, that is, constitutional reforms and appointments, to which these four political forces were going to work as a single legislative body and with that dynamic they undertook the new history of the Senate.
The formation of that Containment Block or opposition bloc decided to use constitutional and legal resources to confront Morena’s decisions, the product of impositions and refusals to include the point of view of minorities.
In this way, the opponents in the Senate wrote a history that turned the Senate in the LXIV and LXV Legislatures into the collegiate body that has had the most appeals for constitutional review filed against it, either by the minorities themselves within it, such as by autonomous institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), when it was chaired by Luis Raúl González Pérez; the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (Inai), the National Electoral Institute (INE) and even by the national leaders of the opposition political parties.
Between the years 2019 and 2024, 35 unconstitutionality actions have been filed against decisions made by the Morenoist steamroller in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. So far, 21 have already been considered totally or partially unconstitutional by the vote of the qualified majority of the Plenary of the SCJN, according to the public records of the Court itself and the opposition senators.
Various reforms to national, general and federal laws have been invalidated by the Court, either due to the violation of the internal procedures of the Chambers or due to their unconstitutional content.
The non-consensual changes in the federal laws on Remuneration of Public Servants, Republican Austerity, Revocation of Mandate, Telecommunications and Broadcasting; to the general laws of the National System of Public Security, Health, Education, Political Parties, the System of Means of Challenge in Electoral Matters and the national laws on Forfeiture of Assets, on the Use of Force, on the Registry of Arrests, They were invalidated by the ministers of the Court.
As well as some parts of the reforms to the Organic Law of the Judicial Branch of the Federation, Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration, Law of the Attorney General’s Office; of the National Guard, of the Electrical Industry and the two electoral reform packages.
According to the content of the contested reforms, the brake imposed since the decision of the country’s highest constitutional judges, at the request of the legislative minorities of the Senate, allowed the ambiguity that had left the salary of public servants to be avoided; conscientious objection in health matters; He shot down the claim of the former president of the SCJN, Arturo Zaldívar, to stay in office for two more years, despite the fact that the Constitution does not allow it.
Likewise, laws that sought to prevent a public servant from being employed in the private sector for at least 10 years were reversed; that citizens be forced to give all their biometric data to cell phone vendors, without having any security control for the management of the data; that a law on indigenous education was imposed without having consulted the indigenous communities.
That discretionary management be given to the Ministry of Finance to use the money that the political parties returned to the Federal Treasury; that the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) be prevented from addressing the complaints of legislative minorities regarding internal decisions of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; that the National Guard was militarized or that the so-called invoice workers were treated as terrorists, by equating the crime with national security risk issues.
Although the LXIV was the first Legislature to establish a record of reforms challenged before the Court, it is in 2023 that the LXV Legislature had the largest number of laws and reforms whose application is under review by the Court, because the violations of due process put into question doubts the legality of 14 decrees published in the Official Journal of the Federation.
In a review of the unconstitutionality actions presented per year, it is observed that in 2019 there were five; in 2020 another five and in 2021 six; In 2022 there were another five and throughout this year of 2023 there are 14, the majority as a result of the so-called black night, when the Senate violated all its internal procedures to approve a package of 20 reforms and new laws.
The opposition bloc in the Senate presented 12 unconstitutionality actions to challenge the marathon of 20 reforms approved in fast-track in the so-called black night of the senatorial plenary session where only the senators from Morena, Verde, PT and PES were present.
Each decree was challenged on two grounds of unconstitutionality, one for the violation of due legislative process and another for the very content of the approved legal norm.
Added to these 12 is the unconstitutionality action against the legal reform that disappeared the trusts of the Judicial Branch of the Federation, as well as another unconstitutionality action against the Federal Law of Rights, because it grants the military the power to stay with the nation’s income from tourism activity, to transfer them to the Mayan Train.
So far, the full Court has resolved 21 of the 35 unconstitutionality actions, according to the review of the resolutions published in the Official Gazette of the Federation; Only on one occasion was it not considered unconstitutional, as in the case of the reform of the Electrical Service Law, but the vote obtained in the plenary session allows the judges to declare it unconstitutional in amparo trials.
RECORD OF APPOINTMENTS NOT MADE
But in addition to violating the Constitution with the issuance of 35 decrees that were or are in Court, the Senate also violated the Constitution, by not making appointments in seven State institutions.
The list of calls and legislative processes open in this regard, which can be consulted on the website, accounts for these omissions.
He did not choose the three Inai commissioners. He did not choose five TEPJF magistrates. He did not elect state electoral magistrates from the 32 states. He did not elect the 10 members of the Advisory Council of the National Human Rights Commission. He did not name members of the Advisory Council on educational matters. He did not name the advisors of the Public Broadcasting System. He did not choose the president of the Federal Telecommunications Institute.
In the case of Inai, the constitutional failure of the Senate generated an institutional crisis that it was necessary for the Court to resolve towards August of last year, by allowing the plenary session to meet with only four of its seven members, despite the law prohibiting it; In addition, he ordered him on two occasions to appoint commissioners and he disobeyed him; There are three requests from judges that he also ignored.
TRANSPARENCY
Although the Inai gives recognition every year for compliance with its transparency commitments, the truth is that since 2019 the Senate stopped fulfilling them.
On the Senate website it is no longer possible to know the payroll, the list of workers settled and the amounts delivered, the number of workers, the money given to the benches and the commissions stopped publishing the draft opinions to which they They are obligated, as can be seen with a visit to the institution’s official website.
OMISSIONS AND JUDGES
The current generation of senators also failed to comply with constitutional mandates to issue the law that regulates indigenous consultation; the one referring to punishments for crimes against trans people and the one that replenishes the fund for the development of the film industry. The letters were officially notified to the Senate plenary session on different dates.
It is not the first time that a Legislature fails to comply with a Constitutional order to issue a law; In fact, since the LXII Legislature there has been a failure because the law that regulates the autonomy of Coneval has not been created, but it is the first time that senators receive requests from judges who grant protection to citizens interested in these laws and who They resort to the mechanisms of law to demand that senators get to work; There are eight judicial requests in this regard, in accordance with the resolutions known by the plenary session.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL BANKS
Although it attempted a reform so that the judicial bodies do not interfere in its internal life decisions, the Senate incurs constitutional violations with devices such as the existence of the “founding moment” to keep alive parliamentary groups that do not comply with constitutional orders, according to with the explanation of the senators themselves.
For six years there was a parliamentary group with the name of a national political party that no longer exists, in which there are senators who came from Morena, but in this way they obtain more money for subsidies and payment of workers, according to the administrative rules of the Senate.
Furthermore, the existence of the PRD parliamentary group was maintained, which although it arrived with six members, remained with three and they still maintained it; Now, it had five members again, but only in the last five days of ordinary work.
The Constitution explicitly establishes that parliamentary groups must be made up of at least five legislators and must correspond to political parties with national registration, which was not met in either of the two groups.
SCANDALS AND SACRIFICES
And this current generation of senators will also go down in history, because it was the first with the largest number of members who have generated controversy and because of the different use they have given to the Senate facilities and its name, as can be seen at different times. on the pages of Excelsiorwhich has accounted for each of them.
The former president of the Senate and today candidate for the government of Puebla, Alejandro Armenta, turned the gallery into a bookshelf for his books; Furthermore, for a year he dedicated himself to delivering “recognitions” from the Senate, with the official coat of arms of the institution, to various social groups in Puebla; an unprecedented delivery of recognitions as if it had its own printing press.
But in addition, the current Senate has among its legislators Claudia Balderas, who came from Morena and is now from the PRI and who became famous for three things: a boyfriend who was arrested for drug possession, kicking her drunk cousin in the Patio del Federalismo and stop paying the rent on the house where he lived.
Similarly, the Morenista Rocío Abreu was a media scandal when she appeared in a video in an office where she was given wads of bills. She said that she went to distribute social programs in communities where banks do not reach, in her native Campeche.
Sergio Pérez Flores, today vice president of the Senate, became famous on social networks a couple of years ago, when in a remote public session he asked that a ruling be corrected, because it had a spelling mistake. For him, the concept of time zones is written without a word; that is, “time zones”, but that is not the case.
Sasil de León, coordinator of the PES bench; Geovanna Bañuelos, coordinator of the Labor Party bench, and Raúl Paz, from Morena, said that they were going to attend the international COP meeting held in Egypt and the truth turned out that they asked for money to go on a trip, because they were never accredited . When they were discovered, they were forced to return all the money.
And just a few days ago, the Oaxacan Adolfo Gómez blew up social networks and generated a scandal when he decided to perform a ceremony to the god Tláloc to ask for rain and included the sacrifice of a chicken, for which he will be sanctioned by the Board of Directors and will weigh on He filed two complaints in Mexico City.
LEGISLATING IN TIMES OF CHOLERA
But the LXIV and the LXV Legislature also became one of the most verbally violent in these six years, not only within the plenary session and the commissions, but due to Morena’s disputes with the Judiciary.
In October 2020, after the approval of the elimination of the trusts, verbal attacks began to be registered in the Senate plenary session, which increased with the constant chattering of its members, until there were 35 that came from one party and today they are and another.
The most extreme cases are those of Alejandra León, who arrived as Morena, then went to the PT, then to the new Plural Group, from there to Movimiento Ciudadano and last week she returned to Morena. And that of Verónica Camino Farjat, who arrived as a PRI member in alliance with the PVEM, but decided to stay in Verde and from there she went to Morena. And Israel Zamora joins them, who arrived with the PRD, but later went to Verde and now ends up as part of Morena.
But although there are 35 senators who moved from political groups, the one who generates the most attacks is Lilly Téllez, who arrived for Morena and has been part of the PAN for three years. They constantly attack her in committees and in her plenary session and she responds to her former colleagues.
Although each session was a moment for verbal confrontation, there were three of the most tense moments experienced within the plenary session.
The first was on October 4, 2022, when visibly upset, the brunette Lucía Trasviña approached the PAN member Lilly Téllez to blurt out in her face that “I am not a hyena”, while raising her arms in front of the PAN member’s face. , who despite thinking that he was going to hit her, did not back down and told the brunette: “you are corrupt.”
I’m not corrupt,” Trasviña told her, but without flinching, without backing down, Lilly Téllez responded: “You are. They are covering up organized crime; “They are covering up organized crime.”
The Morenistas burst into anger, because Lilly Téllez called them hyenas, but in addition, she treated Napoleón Gómez Urrutia severely, who wanted to ask her a question and she ordered him: “Sit down and be quiet, Napoleón! Then you will speak. “Sit down and be quiet and wait for her croquettes!” She told him and when she returned to her seat, she was caught up by the morenista countrywoman Rocío Abreu, who yelled at her right there on her seat.
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The second was on April 27, 2023, when Morena failed to agree to appoint the Inai commissioners and the opposition took the stand, and prevented the session from continuing, which generated tension, from which the Morena member César Cravioto hit him. in the hand of the PAN member Guadalupe Saldaña, when she was trying to hold the megalona that the opponents had to protest and the Morenista tried to prevent her from doing so.
And the third was this April 25 when the PRD Miguel Ángel Mancera and the Morenista César Cravioto were about to get into a fight, after the Morenista insinuated that Mancera is responsible for the disappearance of funds for reconstruction in Mexico City. and he will remind him that the only one who has been publicly accused of keeping the money is Cravioto.
A dynamic of shouting, rudeness in the stands and the existence of posters, giant blankets, signs and even accusations of intimate life that had never been recorded.
LAWSUITS WITH THE JUDICIAL POWER
On December 14, 2023, for the first time the President of the Republic directly appointed Lenia Batres as minister of the SCJN, after the Senate did not achieve consensus to place her on the plenary session of the constitutional court. And that also marks the current generation of senators as the only ones who did not participate in this process that is shared between senators and presidents of the Republic, first through the figure of objection and later as elected legislators.
The political differences between the two political blocks in the Senate showed that they had no point of agreement, since the Containment Block was dissatisfied with the profile of militants and unconditional people that the federal Executive sent to evaluate them, as this newspaper reported during last year.
And because Morena in the Senate became a repeater of the disqualifications of the federal Executive against the minister president of the SCJN, Norma Piña. Alejandro Armenta, as president of the Senate, and Ricardo Monreal, as president of the Political Coordination Board, expressed criticism of the minister; statements that were not common in the Senate regarding the Judiciary.
The Morena senators are part of the Morena groups that promote votes for their party, with the promise of destroying the Judiciary, in accordance with the proposals for constitutional reforms of the President of the Republic, in a dynamic that shows a unity that they never had. In reality, since 2019, when Martí Batres tried to remain president of the Senate and ran into Ricardo Monreal’s majority to prevent it, until April 2023, when all Morenistas voted against the commitment of their coordinator, Monreal, to electing the Inai commissioners, the Morenoist unity in the Senate remained on the verge of breaking.
