Department of Justice’s Judicial Studies Institute Celebrates Impact on Mexico’s Judiciary

The Department of Justice’s Office of Prosecutorial Development and Training (OPDAT), with the support of the Department of State’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Division (INL), celebrated the release of “Reflections on the Accusatory System: Shared Experiences” in the Salón Marqués-Conde of the Hotel Marquis Reforma in Mexico City on the evening of Nov. 7.

This volume, authored by a cohort of judges from the Puerto Rican Judiciary, the Federal Judiciary of the United States, and the Judiciary of Colombia, gathers the insights of OPDAT’s closest judicial partners on the role of judges within Mexico’s new accusatory criminal justice system.  These judges have generously volunteered their time and expertise to work with OPDAT’s Judicial Studies Institute (JSI) in Mexico and Puerto Rico since 2016.  The Honorable Edgardo Rivera García, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, and the Honorable Gustavo Gelpí, Chief Judge of U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, have been especially instrumental in supporting OPDAT’s programming. The JSI program, funded by the Merida Initiative, strengthens the effectiveness of hundreds of Mexican federal appellate and amparo judges.  

“The exchange among our dear friends at the Puerto Rican Supreme Court and the Puerto Rican federal courts, gave us a completely distinct outlook from the judicial trainings in countries like Chile and Colombia,” said Justice of the First Chamber of the Mexican Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo.  “The shared experience [of the Mexico-Puerto Rico Judicial Studies Institute] has been and continues to generate the most useful knowledge for Mexico’s new accusatory criminal justice system.”

This event commemorated the commitment of OPDAT and its partners to supporting Mexico’s judicial sector in the face of the challenges presented by transnational organized crime.