Friday, July 18, 2025

Author of dress code that prohibited tattoos, piercings loses job at palace

A senior legal official in the office of the president has been fired for authorizing a dress code that banned employees in the president’s legal office from having tattoos and piercings, as well as prohibiting them from posting their opinions of the president on social media.

Miguel Ángel Martínez Lara, the fired official who approved the dress code, was the subject of an exposé by the newspaper Reforma last week. He also distributed the code to workers via the messaging application WhatsApp.

After the first Reforma report came out, President López Obrador’s office ordered an investigation and released a statement denying that the office had issued such a dress code. If such a code existed, it was not legitimate or officially approved, the statement said and shared a link to the authorized code of conduct.

The investigation apparently confirmed the code’s existence as Martínez was dismissed on December 1 and no one has replaced him, according to Reforma. The scandal also took down other employees, an inside source told the newspaper.

“They fired [Martínez] because of the news, and other low-profile people like his secretary because of the scandal. They treated them the same,” the source said.

national palace of mexico
Lara Martínez was fired from his National Palace position on December 1, according to the newspaper Reforma. deposit photos

Martínez was part of the team of employees hired by Julio Scherer Ibarra, the previous head of President López Obrador’s legal office. Scherer was at times a controversial figure who was reportedly often in conflict with former Interior Minister Olga Sánchez.

Scherer was also named by several federal legislators as the author of a judicial reform bill addendum voted on in the federal legislature that would have extended the term of Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Saldívar by two years to 2024, a bid which, although opposed by Zaldívar himself, was passed by the legislature earlier this year, though it was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional last month.

Scherer resigned as head of the president’s legal office in August.

With reports from Reforma

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A man stands by an open suitcase in an airport revision area

Foreign national caught with over a million pesos of ketamine in Cancún airport

0
Officials confiscated 2 kilograms of ketamine, a controlled substance in Mexico.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

9
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

2
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity