Good While It Lasted

Before going to his store in Mexico City one morning last week, a bookseller put in a precautionary phone call to his head clerk. Plainclothes cops, the loyal employee reported, had been riffling through the store's ample stock of pornographic novels and postcards, and were awaiting the owner's arrival. The owner, however, hastened to a district judge and got a magic writ called an amparo. When he walked into the store soon afterward and the detectives tried to arrest him, he produced the amparo. With a sigh of frustration, the cops shut the books and went away. The bookseller could be reasonably sure that they would not bother him again for another three months.

An amparo (literally: protection) is a Mexican legal confection with elements of habeas corpus, stay of execution and injunction, all rolled into one. Anyone who feels that he has been or is about to be the victim of unjust police or court action may apply for an amparo. By its terms, no arrest may be made or judgment executed in a specific case until the court issuing the amparo has had a chance to review the case and decide whether the agency involved is acting within the law. Its great advantage from the lawbreaker's point of view is that the huge backlog of amparo cases virtually guarantees a three-to four-month delay before a hearing. When the time is nearly up, the shady character can find another judge and get another amparo.

One way for authorities to get around the right of amparo is to carry out a sabadazo, a surprise arrest after Saturday noon, when all government offices, including the courts, are closed. But all arrests cannot wait till a weekend, and besides, sabadazos are considered unsportsmanlike. This week the Mexican Senate was putting the final touches on a bill, sponsored by President Miguel Aleman, to take some of the obvious kinks out of the amparo system.

The new law will increase the number of tribunals dealing with amparos, and assign to each court three judges, all individually empowered to hand down fast judgments in amparo matters. The measure is intended to reduce the backlog of cases and insure judgment within a few days.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.