• CHANGE: Mexico’s Supreme Court sweared in Margarita Ríos Farjat, the former head of the Mexican tax agency, as new justice in the 11-member panel. Ríos Farjat is the third court member to be sweared in during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term in office.
• CASES: Following the resignation of former justice Eduardo Medina-Mora in October after reports of investigations into his income, Ríos Farjat arrives in a year when the court will consider key cases related to López Obrador’s policies in areas like security and education.
• AUTONOMOUS: “I understand autonomy as a way of being. One is an autonomous and critical person with respect to everything and everyone or one is not about anything. (A person’s) independence lies in a disposition of the spirit and not from where one comes from”, said Ríos Farjat.
• WOMEN: Along with justices Norma Piña and Yasmín Esquivel, this would be the first time that three women would serve at the same time in the Supreme Court since 1994. Ríos Farjat 15-year term at the Supreme Court will end in 2035.
