Justice System, necessary debate

It has been only almost one year since the Adversarial Accusatory Criminal Justice System was implemented and it is already being questioned; mainly because it supposedly grants guarantees to criminals that they did not have before, which makes legal proceedings difficult and, consequently, generates high rates of evasion of justice even when the accused are guilty.

Miguel Ángel Mancera

, head of the Government of Mexico City, acknowledged in an interview with EL UNIVERSAL that, under this logic, the criminal incidence in the capital has increased. The Governor is one of the voices among the governors of several entities in the country that points at the criminal justice system as a tool that protects criminals and exposes the citizenship.

Mancera said that, only in Mexico City, there are at least 15 thousand people who walk around free instead of being in prison. It is not the only state governor to pronounce in that sense since the National Commission of Governors (CONAGO) has pointed out the need to carry out reforms to the Criminal Justice System due to the impacts it has had on public security of the entities of the country.

The seriousness of this issue is that, contrary to its foundational spirit, it is assumed that the justice system does not provide security guarantees for citizenship. This is a debate that must take place in the respective areas: is it functional to have a legal structure that, at the end of the day, does not respond to the justice needs of our societies?

It is necessary to discuss to what extent the System is resetting public safety, the culture of denunciation and the delivery of justice. The dialogue should be oriented towards how it is affecting the levels of impunity and whether the offenders are prosecuted according to the procedures designed to do so. As a frame to the debate, we must take into account the voices that have asked for patience for the new system, in the sense that the results would not come immediately.

Justice has always been one of the great issues for Mexican society. In a country where law continues changing and where the institutions responsible for enforcing it are the ones that are most resistant to public scrutiny, it is not only healthy but also necessary to discuss the Criminal Justice System. What must not be forgotten is that the main criterion has to be the provision of guarantees of justice from public institutions to citizens. It would be opportune that the discussion begins as soon as possible.

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