Claudia Guerrero / Reform Agency
Monday, January 16, 2023 | 21:23
Mexico City.- The Secretary of Public Education (SEP) asked the UNAM to resolve the case on the plagiarism of the thesis allegedly committed by Minister Yasmín Esquivel and, in case of confirming the commission of the crime, report it to the corresponding Prosecutor’s Office .
Through an official letter, the head of the agency, Leticia Ramírez, warned that, as long as the Rector’s Office of the University does not determine the validity of the title that it granted to the judge, the General Directorate of Professions of the SEP cannot intervene.
“In the event that the competent university authority decides that the conduct that is imputed to the citizen Yasmín Esquivel is to be considered as constituting an illegal act, the appropriate thing will be to exercise the corresponding action before the body of justice or authority competent court,” he says.
“This is so because, as long as the title issued at the time by the Rector of the UNAM to the citizen Yasmín Esquivel, is not declared invalid by the competent jurisdictional authority, the General Directorate of Professions lacks the power to intervene in any way in the matter in question, in terms of what is provided by the applicable regulations”.
The document notes that, despite the fact that the Academic and Scientific Integrity Committee of the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Aragón considered that the matter should be evaluated by the university authorities, there is no evidence that it has proceeded internally.
“There is no record that a competent university authority has made such an assessment and made a determination in this regard,” he says.
According to the Secretary of Education, UNAM is obliged to carry out a procedure with respect to due process, human rights and to guarantee the right to a hearing for all those involved.
“Consequently, in respect of the university autonomy that the Committee itself asserts, the competent university instances to issue a resolution on the subject in question are (…) those that must carry out the corresponding procedure,” it warns.
Ramírez maintains that the General Directorate of Professions under his charge “lacks competence to issue” a ruling on the subject.
This morning, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Ministry of the Interior announced that the Esquivel case would be returned to UNAM.
The federal President called on the University and Rector Enrique Graue not to act with politicking, not to evade their responsibility and not to wash their hands of waiting for the federal government to “remove the chestnuts from the fire.”
The man from Tabasco summoned the UNAM to assert its autonomy, resolve on the merits and, where appropriate, file a formal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office, so that the Judiciary issues a final ruling.
The head of Segob, Adán Augusto López, maintained that, as long as there is no judicial resolution, the SEP cannot cancel the registration of any title.
