The double standard of trusts 2023/10/18

The Judiciary is under the threat of extinction of most of its trusts. Maybe by the time you read this they will already be extinct.

In the case of many other institutions the threat was fulfilled. According to Leonardo Nunez (Funds and Trusts, Nexus, July 2021) in the first round (2020-2021) 109 trusts were extinguished or were in the process of being extinguished. From small funds of less than a million pesos such as the Center for Research in Food and Development, through the Sectoral Fund for Research on Poverty, Monitoring and Evaluation Conacyt-Coneval with 30.6 million, to the Sectoral Fund Conacyt-Secretariat of Energy- Hydrocarbons with more than 13 billion. This is how the government was made, at least, of 63 billion pesos.

There was no mobilization, protection or lobbying so that these institutions, most of them in the scientific and technological field, could stop the tsunami that suddenly came upon them.

The lack of purpose and uselessness of these trusts, their opacity and the corruption that prevailed in their management were alleged. It was never tested. Nor can we prove the destination of the resources that were stolen from the affected institutions. They went where the President decided. Those of us who defended the permanence of the trusts were accused of defending corruption.

At that time, he was still presiding over the SCJN Arturo Zaldivar. President Andrés Manuel Ópez Obrador He already criticized the salaries and benefits of that golden bureaucracy, but the extinction of the PJ trusts was not put on the table.

The situation is different since the minister became president of the Court. Norma Piña and various unconstitutionality actions and constitutional controversies began to be resolved against laws approved by the majority of the President's party and his allies.

The desire to weaken the PJ and in particular the Court has not ceased. There are attempts to place like-minded ministers on the Court, damage their reputation and that of the judges and try to prolong the mandate of Zaldivar.

The flank on which we now want to attack is the budgetary one. From 2018 to 2023, the PJ had 17.4% of its resources cut. We will see in 2024. But as a test, Morena presented in the Chamber of Deputies an initiative to extinguish 13 of the 14 PJ trusts (six from the Judiciary Council, six from the Court and two from the Electoral Tribunal) that total more than 16 billion pesos. These resources would go to the Federation Treasury and from there to the limbo of opacity.

The initiative proposes the modification of the Organic Law of the Judiciary so that all trusts disappear except the Fund for the Administration of Justice. The reason, according to the explanatory statement, is that we need an “independent, impartial and effective, auditable and austere Judiciary.” How the existence of a Judicial Branch with these characteristics is achieved with the extinction of these trusts is a mystery.

In any case, what applies here is that justice be done to my compadre's oxen. Why not start at home? Why is the existence of an independent, impartial, effective, auditable and austere Legislative Branch not proposed? Or, better yet, an Executive Branch with those same characteristics.

The President's justification defending the extinction of the trusts is not different, but more powerful due to its origin. 99% of Mexicans are not aware of the legislative initiatives, but what about the President's statements when he says that judges and ministers are corrupt, abusive and are at the service of an elite. This is heard, reproduced and spread. This is popular. Especially when it is said that these resources could go to alleviate the people's shortcomings, even if it is not true.

Let's not get balled up. Nobody is against trusts being transparent, that their resources are applied for the purposes for which they were created, that they are audited and that they have funds of legal origin. But there has been no argument in that sense nor has any evidence - if any - of corruption been exhibited.

The only explanation behind this initiative, that is, the President's will to extinguish the trusts, is political. You hinder my project, even though you are doing your job and defending the Constitution and I annoy you as I can and to the extent I can. And if in the process I get the resources to finish my emblematic works and my social programs, which have nothing to do with austerity, transparency, efficiency and auditability, then how much better.

As simple as that. A revenge. And asked. If the arguments for the extinction of the trusts are so forceful and powerful, why are those that belong to Sedena and that total more than 97 billion pesos not on the table? Or, the other 176 trusts (557 billion) from other federal government agencies?