Panaut, frozen

The news is that the Court decided to keep the National Register of Mobile Phone Users (Panaut) frozen.

In other words, the IFT is not obliged to use the resources of its own budget to implement the Panaut.

It is a battle that the regulatory body is waging against the Executive Power in defense of its constitutional powers to guarantee human rights.

The agency alleges that in economic terms it cannot comply with the obligation to install, operate, regulate and maintain the Panaut.

And it refuses to do so because it violates fundamental rights of the users provided for in the Mexican Political Constitution.

In fact, consistent with the legal position of the regulatory body, it did not request the respective item and it is not included in the budget for 2022.

The origin of the controversy, it must be remembered, was precisely the budget issue.

According to IFT calculations, it requires a budget of 845 million pesos for the necessary computer equipment and 200 million pesos per year for maintenance.

In other words, to establish the register, the IFT estimated that it would require around one billion pesos.

IFT warned from the beginning that the agency did not have that budget and consequently it could not create the biometric data registry.

Then he filed the constitutional controversy.

Now, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ratifies the suspension that had already been granted to the IFT against the biometric data registry.

And with this, the possibility of establishing the Panaut is postponed for one more year.

Consequently, the highest court of justice in the country rejected the challenge of the Presidency of the Republic.

Although the Court still needs to rule on the constitutionality of the Panaut.

The SCJN considered unfounded a claim filed by the legal counsel of the Presidency – at the time headed by Julio Scherer – against the decision of the Court last June, raised by Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, who admitted the controversy for processing. 71/2021 of the IFT.

In reality, it is a multiple victory in favor of legality and obviously the organism.

The suspension granted by the Court to the IFT safeguards the constitutional mandate of the body as regulator and guarantor of human rights contained in articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution.

In addition, it prevents the IFT from being forced to implement a regulatory model that inhibits and conditions free access and without arbitrary interference to telecommunications services for users, which is contrary to what is mandated to the Mexican State by the Constitution itself.

In other words, in short, IFT has been winning this battle so far with which it seeks to preserve its budgetary autonomy.

And at the same time it seeks to protect citizens’ rights of free and unconditional access to telecommunications services.

IFT frees any penalty for administrative liability.

It is a legal battle in which the regulatory body is winning and, consequently, citizenship is winning.

We will have to wait for the Court to decide on the merits of the constitutional controversy, but for now, the suspension is an important victory.

It remains to be seen who, from the government continues to promote the creation of the Panaut.

At the time.

Glimpses

SHORT CIRCUIT.- The Electrical Reform continues to spark sparks. To the strong accusations of the CCE of Carlos Salazar, yesterday October 20, the director of the CFE, Manuel Bartlett angrily replies that he only explained the robbery that is registered with an electrical system that benefits an oligarchic system.

Yesterday, October 20, the International Chamber of Commerce Mexico (ICC Mexico) warned that if the electricity counter-reform of the Moreno government is approved, Mexico will multiply the risk of facing international litigation for millionaire claims “never seen before”.

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