In 2010, then-President Felipe Calderón had his officials practically take over the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) to pressure the ABC daycare center case. Two of his ministers ended up reading the statements sent to them by the Ministry of the Interior before the full court as if they were their own, said the president of the highest court, Arturo Zaldívar, last Tuesday at the Federal Judicial Training School.
The matter began to be discussed in the full court of the Supreme Court on June 14 of that year, and from that day on, dozens of officials appeared at the SCJN headquarters to pressure the justices. "And so they began to hit, hit, and hit. The courtrooms and hallways were occupied by the Executive Branch. The Secretaries of State were there, as was the then director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS)."
The Court, which at that time had the custom of working until 3 p.m., was now 11 p.m., and all the private courts were open and all the public servants of the federal Executive Branch were walking around.
"Now that there's so much talk about independence and why I'm going to have breakfast at the National Palace and all that, those of us who were there at the Court can attest to what that moment was like, when the government practically took over the Court," Zaldívar recounted.
The president of the SCJN pointed out that the pressure came not only from the government, which sent the then Secretary of the Interior, Fernando Gómez-Mont, to this end, but also
rom his colleagues, who were close to Felipe Calderón.
