The Complutense University of Madrid has distanced itself from the doctorate of Yasmín Esquivel, Minister of the Supreme Court of Mexico, which she received from Anahuac University in 2009 with a paper in which she plagiarized 209 of the 456 pages, revealed by the last week an investigation by EL PAÍS. In the biography she sent to the Senate in 2019 to be elected secretary, Esquivel noted that she earned her PhD from Anahuac University “in coordination” with Complutense University. In her profile on the Supreme Court’s website, she also affirms that she has a doctorate in law from the University of Mexico “in line” with that of Madrid. However, the directors of the Complutense have clarified that Esquivel never supported her doctoral work in the Spanish house of studies, so she cannot be considered one of his doctors. “Essentially, you are a complutense physician if you have written your dissertation at university and it has been defended in a complutense court. In Minister Esquivel’s case, the Complutense has nothing to do with it,” says a spokesman for the University of Madrid. Esquivel, who was asked about this, has assured through intermediaries that she never claimed to be a Complutense doctor.
In any case, the minister’s connection with the Spanish House of Studies is documented. It started with some subjects taught by Complutense professors in Mexico, thanks to a collaboration agreement with Anahuac. This Wednesday, at the request of this newspaper, the minister, through her private secretary, sent documents proving that she had taken and successfully completed her courses at the Spanish university. For the completion of these courses, she was awarded a diploma and recognized as a doctoral student. But according to Complutense, his relationship with the minister never went from there.
In Esquivel’s doctoral thesis entitled Fundamental Rights in Mexico and Their Defense, the judge plagiarized 46% of the texts by 12 authors. The Complutense arose from the controversy caused by this plagiarism, which joins that of another previous thesis of Esquivel, the conclusion of 1987, analyzed by the UNAM and proved in a first opinion to be a is an “substantive copy” of another student’s thesis submitted a year earlier.
The dean of the Spanish university, Ricardo Alonso, asked for the floor on Tuesday in the Governing Council, in which all levels are represented, to “calm down the university community”. “Thank God we have nothing to do with this doctoral thesis (…) Minister Esquivel did her doctoral thesis on her own responsibility and under Mexican supervision and neither the Law School nor the Complutense University paint anything,” added the dean, who explained that although the Complutense Law School had had a cooperation agreement with the University of Anahuac, “a fairly powerful private university”, for 20 years, the professors only teach doctoral courses. “The agreement made it very clear that the doctorate can be prepared and defended after completing these courses at Complutense or Anahuac Law School,” added Alonso.
The recognition of the subjects taught by the Complutense professors who traveled to Mexico certified Yasmín Esquivel’s “research competence”, a prerequisite for starting the doctoral thesis. At that point, the current minister was free to choose where to do her dissertation. In 2001, Esquivel submitted his project to Complutense, with almost the same title it would eventually bear years later. The Spanish university confirmed his registration and assigned him a director. However, a spokesman for the Madrid center assures EL PAÍS that the procedures did not go beyond this registration. Esquivel never started his doctoral thesis at Complutense, opting instead for Anahuac, where he presented it in 2008, advised by a professor from that university. The work was read and approved by seven synods, including those from the Mexican school.
Recognition of research adequacy by the Complutense University, a minimum requirement to do a PhD at this school.El País
Speaking to this newspaper, Dean Alonso, who was a professor at Esquivel in Mexico, recalled the terms of the agreement. Between 1995 and 2005, when he took the courses, he reckons about eight full professors or professors from the complutense traveled to the country to teach the same subject for three hours a day for two weeks — a total of 30 hours — as in the Doctorate in corporate law in Madrid: matters of administrative, commercial, European jurisprudence…
He estimates that between 200 and 300 students attended the course, who he believes “died” due to the lack of interest from Anahuac who did not encourage him, 85% already from professions (judges, notaries, lawyers) and 15% new graduates. In 2000, Esquivel was appointed Secretary for Studies and Accounts of the Presidency of the Agrarian Supreme Court.
The dean, who does not want to address the issue of plagiarism, reports that no more than four or five Anahuac students have continued their doctoral studies in Spain and he has been in contact with all of them. Among the few doctoral students in Madrid are Ricardo Alfredo Sodi, President of the Supreme Court of the State of Mexico; the well-known lawyer and academic Juan Pablo Pampillo; and José Antonio Núñez, Esquivel’s PhD director.
As detailed in the EL PAÍS investigation, Esquivel plagiarized, among others, a former rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a former Spanish Minister of Culture and a former President of the Supreme Court of Spain, a former President of the Inter-American Court of Rights Human Rights (CIDH) as well as Mexican, Italian, Spanish and German lawyers. Two of these authors confirmed the plagiarism of this newspaper. Two Mexican academics, who blindly checked the proofs without knowing that they were the minister’s work, also thought it was plagiarism. Esquivel asserted after the research was published and through his attorney that “omission” of citing original authors in a thesis is a “defect” or “oversight” but not plagiarism, especially when it comes to respected authors, which is something that law students often do and professors called.
Annex to the Cooperation Agreement between Complutense University of Spain and Anahuac University of Mexico.El País
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