A handwritten letter in which a lawyer incriminates himself, the notarial instrument that accounts for the letter and claims to have the signature of its author, together with various expert opinions made on electronic and typed documents, are the elements with which the minister of the Court, Yasmin Esquivel Mossa, You are trying to prove that you did not plagiarize the essay that earned you your law degree.
In an unprecedented and extremely fast investigationthe Mexico City Attorney General’s Office decided to lend itself to a political maneuver, but not a legal one, in defense of the minister, who is accused of having allegedly plagiarized her bachelor’s thesis in 1987.
The intention was to record that an authority exonerated her from these accusations, in order to maintain her candidacy for the presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), although finally the one chosen for that position was the minister Norma Lucia Pina Hernandez.
According to the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office, the director of the thesis presented in 1987 by today’s togada, the teacher Martha Rodriguez Ortiz, At her home, she received a letter written by hand by Édgar Ulises Báez Gutiérrez, author of an essay practically the same as Esquivel’s, also directed by the same teacher, but recorded a year earlier, in 1986.
In the letter, the lawyer would have admitted having taken, between 1985 and 1986, “several references and text” from Yasmín Esquivel’s thesis project, “because he needed to finish his degree quickly.” The letter, received at his house by the director of both theses, was allegedly later signed by Báez Gutiérrez in the presence of Notary Public Amando Mastachi Aguario, head of Notary Public 121 of Mexico City.
However, in an interview with the Eje Central website, Báez Gutiérrez denied having made that admission, and emphatically stated that he had not plagiarized the minister’s thesis, since “logic dispels everything: the one that is titled first, evidently has the original text”.
ahead of its time
The story supported by Esquivel Mossa, although it seems improbable, is the following: She would have started her thesis project in 1985, two years before finishing her degree, so from that date the document would have been in the possession of the teacher Martha Rodríguez Ortiz.
This in turn, in 1986, a year before Esquivel defended the thesis, would have shown the text to Édgar Ulises Báez, who was later accused of plagiarism by the Minister of the Court before the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office.
This version is not only denied by the author of the first thesis, but also contradicts what was stated by the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Enrique Graue Wiechers, who argued last week that in this controversy “The existence of plagiarism is evident.”
However, the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office determined -in just six days- that “it is evident that the complainant Yasmín Esquivel Mossa did not copy, neither in part nor in its entirety, the thesis of Édgar Ulises Báez Gutiérrez.” And although the latter would allegedly be responsible for plagiarism, that instance decided not to pursue criminal action against him because the crime had already prescribed.
Expert reports prove nothing
The result of the investigation by the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office also reports two expert opinions applied to typed documents dating from 1985, when Yasmín Esquivel would have started her thesis. In addition, a computer expert verified that, in the electronic repository of the UNAM, the digitized thesis of the minister was lodged before that of Báez Gutiérrez.
The latter does not prove which of the two theses was written first, since UNAM itself clarified that the digitization process of these documents is not carried out considering their presentation dates, but rather responds to administrative processes that have nothing to do with the originality of the texts.
The theses presented in the eighties were microfilmed by the university for storage, then, with the emergence of the Internet, the collection has been gradually digitized.
Use of institutions
The support of the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office for the bizarre version of Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, denotes a political and partisan use of the institutions, together with a possible falsification of documents, and simulation of legal acts, since Édgar Ulises Báez Gutiérrez He denies having written and sent the letter in which, it is said, he admitted to having plagiarized portions of the togada thesis.
In fact, Báez Gutiérrez has reiterated that he is the original author of the essay, so -in reality- the most important thing in this scandal is yet to happen: It will be the Academic and Scientific Integrity Committee of the current Faculty of Higher Studies Aragón from the UNAM, where Esquivel Mossa graduated, the one who determines who is right, to later, together with the authorities of the highest house of studies, determine the consequences.
If the plagiarism of which the Minister of the Court is accused is proven, the sanction could include the annulment of your degree as a law graduatewhich would mean that all the rulings he has made in the last 22 years in his judicial career in the Supreme Court, in the Agrarian Courts, and in the Contentious-Administrative Court of the former Federal District would be questioned.
Although in legal terms it would be the disputing parties in those lawsuits who would have to process the annulment of the proceedings, in the event that the maximum sanction was applied to Esquivel, what is relevant in the case transcends the aspects of legality, showing that The most honest and suitable jurists do not always reach the Supreme Court of our country, but rather those who have accumulated political power.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.