Quintana Roo Judicial Body Paralyzed, Judges Unassigned

CHETUMAL — Eighteen days after its installation, the Judicial Administration Body of Quintana Roo has not carried out the assignment of judges elected this past June 1st to their corresponding judicial organs, remaining paralyzed by internal complications it has had to resolve under the illegal intervention of the president of the State Superior Court of Justice, Heyden Cebada Rivas.

As of today, the courts to which the 117 judges emerging from the judicial election were assigned have not been announced. This contrasts with the actions of the Federal Judiciary, which on September 14th published the assignments of magistrates and federal judges across the country, a task it completed on time despite assigning 846 elected individuals.

Due to this delay by the state body, an official directory of first instance courts and their presiding judges does not exist on the official website of the State Judiciary to date. The previous directory, which had been approved and published by the defunct Judiciary Council, was removed and a new one has not been issued.

The operation of the Judicial Administration Body has been hindered by delays in its organization as a new authority, stemming from the resignation of one of its three members, Yaneth Faisal Padrón, just four days after taking office. She was replaced this past Monday by María Elena Ceballos Cardeña, the former private secretary to the state governor, Mara Lezama.

Meanwhile, there are no agreements, circulars, or information on decisions made by the body. The only actions taken so far have been the election of Rafael Manuel Ponce Pacheco as its president and the designation of its official headquarters in Cancún instead of the state's official capital, Chetumal.

In fact, despite determining in its first session not to make changes to the administrative structure inherited from the extinct State Judiciary Council—ratifying the heads of the General Secretariat of Agreements and the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the previous body, Geny Alicia Cajún Alonzo and Fermín Monje Montiel, respectively, to continue in the new one, as well as ratifying the heads of the units and directorates of the extinct body—the sole new appointment made was that of Adolfo González Martínez as General Secretary of Administration. This agreement has not been published to date in the State Official Gazette or on the official website of the Judiciary.

Beyond that, it published a call for applications to integrate the roster of experts before the Judiciary, but based on an agreement made by the extinct Judiciary Council in conjunction with the previous Superior Court of Justice, and ordered to be issued by the Secretary of Agreements, not by the president or the full body of the Judicial Administration.

This manifest paralysis occurs within the framework of the intervention that the president of the Superior Court of Justice, Heyden Cebada Rivas, seeks to have illegally in the exclusive faculties of the Judicial Administration Body for the management of personnel and the budget of the Judiciary, through a Coordination Board that arrogates attributes in violation of those established in the state Constitution.

In contrast, the Judicial Discipline Tribunal appears more focused on its functions in its initial stages. In addition to its installation agreement and the designation of its president, Elizabeth Moreno Rejón, it has already announced via circulars the appointment of the head of the Internal Control Body of the Judiciary, Elvira Zugeily Soto Corella, and the ratification in the Body for the Investigation of Administrative Responsibilities of Elides Antonio Pech Molina, until the term assigned by the extinct Judiciary Council concludes.

It has also already published its calendar of ordinary full sessions and the formation of the disciplinary commissions into which it will divide for the exercise of its functions and their locations, as follows:

• First Disciplinary Commission, under the charge of Magistrate Elizabeth Moreno Rejón, based in Chetumal;
• Second Disciplinary Commission, under the charge of Magistrate Nelsy Lucely Trejo Puc, based in Chetumal; and
• Third Disciplinary Commission, under the charge of Magistrate Marco Antonio Torre Constantino, based in Cancún;
  all with territorial jurisdiction in the judicial districts of Cancún, Chetumal, Isla Mujeres, Lázaro Cárdenas, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, José María Morelos, Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Cozumel.

The First and Second Disciplinary Commissions will have their official residence at the Palace of Justice in Chetumal, on Avenida Independencia at Boulevard Bahía, and the Third Commission will have its residence in the judicial building on Avenida Bonampak, corner of Punta Celarain, supermanzana 8, manzana 2, lote 3.

Reflecting the progress in its organization, the Judicial Discipline Tribunal has already published its updated directory of operational positions.