Mérida, Mexico - On Thursday May 29, 2014, President Enrique Peña Nieto and Governor Rolando Zapata Bello inaugurated the "Oral Justice Center of Merida" (Centro de Justicia Oral de Mérida, CJOM,) the brand new $158 million pesos investment governmental facility which became the first building in all of Mexico with the equipment and infrastructure meeting official requirements for the exercise of the new Criminal Justice System.

After the unveiling of the plate commemorating the opening, and accompanied by Jesús Murillo Karam, Attorney General of the Republic and Claudia Ruiz Massieu Salinas, Mexico's Federal Tourism Secretary, the President and the Governor toured the CJOM, which currently covers an area of 265,029 square feet on three levels.

The facility has eight oral trial courts - along with working spaces for judges, prosecutors, and defenders. It also has a tunnel 1150 feet long which connects the Oral Justice Center with the Social Reinsertion Center (jail) of Mérida, to transfer the detainees safely.

President Peña Nieto underscored the progress in the implementation of the Criminal Justice System in the region, which will be in full function statewide from the first minute of Tuesday, June 3rd. This will make Yucatán the fourth Mexican state to have implemented the new justice model in all of its municipalities.

Earlier in the day, the President officially opened the "Plenary Assembly of the XXXI National Conference of Law Enforcement" (XXXI Asamblea Plenaria de la Conferencia Nacional de Procuración de Justicia,) an event that brought together all of Mexico’s state and federal prosecutors, to address issues related to the implementation of the new "Oral Justice System," among other subjects.