Sheinbaum rules out initiative to reform prosecutors' offices, but calls for their review

MEXICO CITY (apro).- President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo distanced herself from the intention of Morena and its allies in the Senate to remove the autonomy of state prosecutors' offices, but acknowledged the need to analyze their functioning, after the reform of the Judicial Branch in the country was finalized.

"The president has no interest in influencing the prosecutor's offices to control what they do, but the country needs to review the role of the prosecutor's offices and whether they are all fulfilling their purpose or whether they still require more tools and instruments," he declared during his press conference at the National Palace.

This is how the federal president responded to a story in the newspaper Reforma , which cited Waldo Fernández's statement from Morena, the senator for Nuevo León, stating that the ruling party, along with the PT and PVEM parties, are considering submitting an initiative to return prosecutors' offices to the state executive branch and for governors to propose their heads.

In a serious tone, Sheinbuam Pardo cut in: “It's not a government proposal. It's clear that the autonomy of the prosecutor's offices needs to be analyzed, as well as how they've functioned. Obviously, in some states it's been in place for longer, and at the federal level, since 2019. So it needs to be analyzed, but it's not a federal government proposal to take away the autonomy of the prosecutor's offices.”

He added that, after the reform of the judiciary was finalized, "we now need to thoroughly analyze the role of the prosecutor's offices and how they have functioned, but there is no proposal of ours that involves stripping them of their autonomy."

Without mentioning specific cases, he asserted that "there are prosecutors' offices in some states that work very well, while others don't."

He even referred to the Attorney General's Office (FGR): "It works well, but in other ways it needs to improve."

The former head of government of Mexico City highlighted the importance of state prosecutors' offices: "They are a fundamental institution, indispensable for peace and the reduction of violence in the country. Indispensable, because they are ultimately the ones who prosecute crime. The National Guard and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection have a preventive role and another role as an assistant to the Public Prosecutor's Office to conduct intelligence and investigations, but it is the Prosecutor's Office that submits the investigation files to a judge."

Therefore, he insisted that it's "worthwhile" to analyze the functioning of the prosecutor's offices and "other aspects they need to improve their operations. The discussion of autonomy is another matter, but I think it's important to improve the administration of justice in our country in general."

The head of the Executive Branch recalled that the autonomy of the prosecutor's offices "was based on the idea that they would not be used for political purposes." "That was, let's say, the essence of autonomy, so that it wouldn't depend on the Executive Branch whether or not to prosecute a person, regardless of the crime they had committed."

He added that this reform was also conceived "with the idea of ​​having much greater professionalization for the prosecution of crimes, and so far we must all say that the prosecutor's offices need improvement, all of them."

When Sheinbaum Pardo was head of government of Mexico City, the opposition accused the then head of the capital's Prosecutor's Office, Ernestina Godoy, -current Legal Advisor to the Presidency- of being the "carnal prosecutor", giving priority to criminal investigations against her, for example, in the case of the so-called "Real Estate Cartel", or, for the controversy that arose against Uriel Carmona, then Attorney General of Morelos, for the case of the disappearance and femicide of the young Ariadna Fernanda in 2023.