Juan Enrique Vargas [Executive Director, Justice Studies Center of the Americas (CEJA/JSCA)]: "Everything indicates that Mexico will soon implement a profound criminal justice reform that would share a great deal of the main characteristics of the reforms that have been introduced in almost every country in Latin America since the early 1990s. Once Mexico joins this process, practically every nation in the region, with the very significant exception of Brazil, will have abandoned the old inquisitory criminal trial systems, replacing them with others that are characterized by the use of oral procedures, the central role of prosecutors in criminal investigation, express recognition of the presumption of innocence and the right to a defense, and more rights and benefits for victims. The single identity in the procedures is a positive factor of this process because it facilitates international cooperation in the struggle against increasingly transnational criminal phenomena.

But even more important are the positive effects that this new system should generate within Mexico. Over the past few years, crime has become one of the most serious problems being faced by the State. Whether it is a matter of crimes related to drug trafficking, which receive the most attention internationally because of their seriousness, or common crimes that are less serious but more intense and frequent, the country's major cities have reached critical levels of citizen insecurity.

The biggest question that must be answered now is to what degree criminal procedure reform can reverse this phenomenon. Others have pointed out that crime has many causes, and that it is naive to think that judicial reform policy alone will reverse them. However, a good justice system can and should contribute to a global strategy in this area. It is likely that the problem that Mexico's criminal justice system is facing today is rooted in high levels of impunity that are often associated with high levels of corruption. An open and transparent system composed of agencies with separate functions that oversee each other can provide at least the basic conditions for fair and just trials and endows the system with a level of legitimacy that the current one would seem to lack.

This is not, of course, enough to make crime disappear, but there seem to be essential requirements for moving in that direction. The reform will only have the desired impact if it goes beyond mere legislative changes in order to introduce truly different practices. As the experience of countries that have introduced similar reforms has demonstrated, the correct implementation of the changes is even more important than good normative design. The process requires adequate planning, strong leadership and a capacity to make the changes that are required as time goes on. At the same time, it is important to have the resources necessary to implement institutional adjustments and focus on management mechanisms and training for judicial operators, as these are the two instruments that will allow for the changes proposed in the laws to become a reality."