Supreme Court Denies TV Azteca & Grupo Elektra Request to Postpone Tax Trials

ByIván Evair Saldaña

This article by Iván Evair Saldaña originally appeared in the November 4, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, rejected on Tuesday a request to postpone the ruling on seven tax lawsuits filed by TV Azteca and Grupo Elektra, after both companies asked for a delay in the judgments, arguing that they had sent a request to the federal government to “adjust” the amounts of their debts.

This is the second time in the last two weeks that Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s companies have tried to block the Court’s rulings in their tax lawsuits. At least eight cases involving companies from Grupo Salinas are pending before the Supreme Court, challenging tax assessments that, according to estimates by tax authorities, total 48,393,975,821 pesos, including fines, surcharges, and updates.

The companies Elektra and TV Azteca justified their request, stating that if the Tax Administration Service (SAT) agrees to make adjustments to their debts, it would no longer be necessary for the Supreme Court to issue rulings on their cases.

“Regarding the request that the judgment be issued only after the corresponding authority adjusts the tax credit, the appellant is informed that there is no legal provision that empowers the presiding minister to suspend the issuance of the ruling, especially since, in order to safeguard the guarantee of access to justice, this court must ensure compliance with the deadlines and terms established in the applicable regulations and issue its resolutions promptly,” the notifications state.

Along with the requests, the companies also filed motions to recuse Justices Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, and Loretta Ortiz Ahlf to prevent them from participating in the resolution of five of the cases, but these were also rejected by the Court’s presidency.

On October 27, Grupo Elektra filed two requests to prevent the nine ministers from resolving two lawsuits it filed against tax credits, which together total more than 34.373 billion pesos, corresponding to taxes, fines, updates, and surcharges.

Last week, Grupo Salinas asked the government of Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to update the amounts of its debt with the Mexican Tax Administration Service (SAT) and stated that it would settle it in less than 10 days. However, the sum the company says it is willing to pay—7.6 billion pesos, including a down payment of 2.7 billion pesos in 2022—is far from the 74 billion pesos the federal government is demanding, according to tax attorney Grisel Galeano.

However, the President of Mexico responded to the businessman that there is no need to set up a dialogue between his lawyers and the SAT (Mexican Tax Administration Service), as he only needs to pay directly.

“The only thing we’ve said is, take this chocolate, pay what you owe. What we’ve told them is: pay today, today, today. The SAT offices and electronic transfers are there,” the federal leader said on October 28.

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