The Minister and the Rector

Yasmín Esquivel maintained that she is the target of “a campaign of lies and defamation without support” and that “other interests” intervened in the election in the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

In the midst of a controversy that lasted 10 days, forced by media pressure to prove that she is the original author of the thesis “Ineffectiveness of unions in trusted workers of article 123, section A”, the minister pointed to the UNAM instances in charge of receiving, archiving and disseminating these investigation works, as probable perpetrators of the fraud.

The prestige and honor of the Maximum House of Studies, questioned by the dispute over control of the Judiciary.

The TESIUNAM is located in the General Directorate of Libraries and Digital Services, a repository —both physical and digital— of the theses of the supporters who have obtained an academic degree in the highest House of Studies. “The file containing my thesis was improperly and illegally modified (sic) on December 22”, a day after the article “An intern minister” by Guillermo Sheridan was published in Latinus.

Such insinuation forced the rector Enrique Graue Wiechers to pronounce on these “reprehensible events”… and to take part in the controversy. In the first instance, to explain that when comparing the theses in question “the absence of eight pages was observed in the PDF file of the work” by Esquivel Mossa and that error was corrected.

The UNAM reported on this exercise, carried out by the DGB, on Friday, December 23. Since then, he ruled “a high level of coincidence” between the minister’s work, published in 1987, and the thesis supported a year before by Edgar Ulises Báez Gutiérrez, a student at the Faculty of Law.

The rector, before Fernando Macedo Chagolla, director of the FES Aragón. There, the academic and scientific integrity committee of the FES Aragón opened an investigation into the alleged plagiarism and required information and evidence to defend the parties involved.

The deadline for presenting evidence expired on December 29. That day was the one year anniversary of the death of Eliud Esquivel Benavides, father of the minister. Among the “disappeared” pages were the dedications and acknowledgments. Esquivel Mossa dedicated his thesis to his parents, Eliud and Fanny Mossa de Esquivel; his maternal grandfather, Porfirio; his four younger sisters—Fanny, Nancy, Naomi, and Raquel—and his little nephew, Ismael.

Special dedications deserved her friend, Karla Fernández Mendoza; the accountant José Miguel Méndez Herrera; the teacher Yulic Barrientos Solís —who was then a magistrate of the Federal District Court of Administrative Justice— and his thesis advisor, Martha Rodríguez Ortiz.

On December 30, Esquivel Mossa disclosed on social networks part of the evidence that he delivered to the integrity committee of the FES Aragón, including the testimony of his thesis advisor who referred to a statement “before a notary public” by Báez Gutiérrez, who would have admitted responsibility.

The board of directors of the university campus reported – also through social networks – that both had delivered “new documentation” and that, once the investigation stage was closed, the committee lacked sufficient elements to make a comprehensive evaluation of the case.

“Once you resume (sic) the academic-administrative activities in the Faculty, a next session will be convened to continue with the aforementioned work, as well as analyze the performance and observance of the university ethical principles of the adviser of both theses”, advertisement.

On the last day of 2022, less than 48 hours after the election of the new president of the SCJN, Edgar Ulises Baez appeared to refute Esquivel Mossa’s version.

And Rector Graue decided to intervene with a communication that advances a verdict, without going into the substance of the matter. The theses of both involved have a level of coincidence of more than 90% —”the existence of plagiarism is evident”— and the original document would be the one registered in 1986.