**Piña Presents Comprehensive Judicial Reform Initiative; Noroña Asserts Senate Approval with 85 Votes**
**Primary Article:**
On September 8, 2024, Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and the Federal Judicial Council (CJF), unveiled a proposal for a comprehensive reform of the justice system in Mexico. Accompanied by Justices Luis María Aguilar Morales, Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo, and Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, along with Federal Judicial Council members Lilia Mónica López Benítez, Sergio Javier Molina Martínez, and José Alfonso Montalvo Martínez, Piña emphasized the need for legislative dialogue on these reforms.
In a broadcast via the Justice TV channel on YouTube, Piña Hernández called on members of the national legislature to engage in discussions regarding the reform. Highlighting the importance of resisting the dismantling of the judicial power, she stressed that their commitment lies with future generations.
“The demolition of the Judicial Power is not the way. Our resistance is not about our present, our commitment is with the coming generations,” stated Piña Hernández, offering lawmakers the document containing the reform proposals for immediate consideration.
The document, now publicly accessible, is the result of extensive diagnostics, integrating the actual needs of those responsible for justice functions and those who interact with the system. It aims to contribute to discussions on judicial reform from the perspective of federal judges, magistrates, and personnel from the judicial organs and 11 local justice systems.
Piña called for a firm, yet respectful, dialogue among the branches of government, emphasizing the voices of violence victims and human rights defenders. She proposed the creation of a Judicial Council among other initiatives to address structural issues in the judiciary.
The SCJN’s brief statement outlined the key components of the reform, addressing public security, criminal justice, local judicial powers, ethics and legitimacy, corruption and nepotism, access to justice and human rights, effective judicial processes and resources, the penitentiary system, and comprehensive public defense.
Simultaneously, the Senate’s joint committees on Constitutional Points and Legislative Studies began evaluating the reform’s minutiae. Senate President José Gerardo Rodolfo Fernández Noroña backed the assessment by the Morena party’s senate coordinator, Adán Augusto López Hernández, asserting that a qualified majority, requiring 85 votes, would be sufficient for approval.
“If you ask me, like in school, rounding down from 0.4, my perspective is with 85 senators it will be enough, but ideally, we reach a minimum of 86 seats,” explained Fernández Noroña.
On the same day, from the archaeological zone of Ichkabal in Bacalar, Quintana Roo, national elected president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo joined President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expressing confidence in the Senate’s approval of the judicial reform.
“I believe it will be approved,” Sheinbaum responded when asked about the preparedness of Morena and its allies—the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and Labor Party (PT)—to secure the necessary votes for the reform in the Senate.
**Secondary Article:**
**Claudia Sheinbaum Assures Senate Support for Judicial Reform**
In a separate appearance on September 8, 2024, national elected president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo voiced her confidence that the Senate would pass the proposed judicial reform. Speaking from the Ichkabal archaeological site in Bacalar, Quintana Roo, alongside President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum assured that the reform had the backing required for approval.
“Yes, I think it will be approved,” confirmed Sheinbaum when asked by journalists if Morena and its coalition partners had the votes needed for the reform passage.
This sentiment aligns with the declaration from Senate President Fernández Noroña, who earlier in the day stated that the qualified majority of 85 votes would suffice to pass the judicial reform initiative.