Lozoya seeks to remove two Supreme Court justices from the case against Lourdes Mendoza.

MEXICO CITY (apro).- Former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) director Emilio Lozoya Austin is seeking to remove two Supreme Court justices from the discussion of the pending injunction against the order to compensate journalist Lourdes Mendoza for moral damages.

According to the Court's benches, Lozoya filed impediment number 43/2025 against Justices Margarita Ríos Farjat and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena to prevent them from voting on the matter.

The appeal was referred to Justice Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, a member of the Second Chamber, for review and a draft resolution.

Ortiz Mena is the reporting minister for Lozoya's appeal before the Supreme Court. The case was scheduled for discussion in yesterday's session of the First Chamber; however, the vote on the case was postponed.

Judicial sources confirmed that the bill proposes upholding the ruling that ordered the former official to compensate Lourdes Mendoza for moral damages resulting from the statement he issued before the Attorney General's Office (FGR), in which he stated that the journalist received a luxury handbag from Luis Videgaray, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and that the federal government paid for her daughter's tuition in exchange for writing in support of Enrique Peña Nieto's administration.

In his appeal, Lozoya stated that Minister Ríos Farjat maintains a "friendship" with Lourdes Mendoza.

"Recusal from participation in the discussion and voting on this matter is requested due to the existence of an objective cause of impediment that compromises her impartiality and affects the guarantee of an independent and impartial judge for Justice Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat, given that a close personal relationship of direct communication, trust, and collaboration is evident between the aforementioned Justice and Justice María de Lourdes Mendoza Peñaloza, who is a party to this matter," states the excerpt published by the Court.

In the case of Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, the complainant alleged that the minister is friends with the former PRI presidential candidate, José Antonio Meade, whom Lozoya accused the Attorney General of intervening and granting special conditions in the sale of ethane when he was Secretary of Energy to favor Braskem, an Odebrecht subsidiary.