José Narro Robles, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Former UNAM rector José Narro Robles said Mexico cannot advance as a country without consolidating a genuine rule of law, one that eliminates impunity and corruption, ensures no one is above the law, and makes constitutional prerogatives more than dead letters.
Speaking to more than 700 recent graduates of the Bachelor of Laws program, who received diplomas for completing their studies, and their families at the Centro de Exposiciones y Congresos, he stressed the need to fight so that all constitutional guarantees become reality rather than mere aspirations.
He cited the right to work, established in the 1917 Constitution, which he said is unmet for more than 50 percent of the national population working in the informal economy. He urged graduates never to depart from the truth, especially at a time when lies circulate easily in Mexican society and around the world.
Narro Robles said that whoever handles the truth with rigor and honesty provides an enormous service, and that a lawyer may defend a cause with passion but never with deception. He told graduates to pursue justice even when the path is long, respect the law, and remember that ethics is essential, since change begins from it.
The emeritus professor of the Faculty of Medicine reminded the audience that institutions and laws are instruments that allow people to live in peace and aspire to a better life. He said graduates will practice in a country full of contrasts, with greatness and problems but also solutions, during a period of rapid technological change in which digital tools and artificial intelligence are transforming how law is taught, written and litigated.
He urged them to use these tools without surrendering to them. He said a machine can organize information but cannot assume responsibility for a decision or feel the weight of the difference between justice and injustice.
Sonia Venegas Álvarez, director of the Faculty of Law, recalled the teachings of José Vasconcelos, philosopher, educator, politician, former Secretary of Education and former UNAM rector, who coined the motto of the university, “Por mi raza hablará el espíritu,” and launched a crusade for public education and cultural inspiration in which those who know share their knowledge with those who do not.
Venegas said graduates now master the language of law, which many people do not understand, and that their training has given them the technical tools to analyze and interpret laws and jurisprudence, study legal doctrine, resolve complex situations, and draft lawsuits, pleadings or rulings with a solid position.
Narro Robles added that those who have the privilege of knowing a science and its language must teach it to others, make it accessible and share it generously, as a way of joining the crusade for education, solidarity, empathy and social justice.
He reminded graduates that their university education, besides being the product of their own perseverance, was made possible by the efforts of millions of Mexican men and women who support this public university, and urged them to honor the society that now places its trust in them.
